Candy Coated Chocolates
by Froggeh12
Summary: Kagome is forced to switch from a public school in Tokyo to a rundown private school in a small town. On top of moving, Kagome is looked down on, experiences losing friends and conflicting emotions about new ones, and falls in love with the socalled enemy
1. The Beginning

**Candy Coated Chocolates**

**The Beginning**

**Froggeh12**

**A/N:** Here is the updated version of a story I wrote about three years ago, called "No Such Thing as Coincidence"... this time around it actually has a plot! This story doesn't start out extremely exciting, but that's because I'm just starting to explain things. There will be a lot of humor later on. Please please please review, (constructive) criticism is much appreciated!

---

Have you ever wondered about our solar system, and how much it relates to life on Earth? Think about it. There are so many stars out there - ones much, much bigger than the sun. However, only one gets its proper recognition as an amazing creation, because at first glance it _seems_ bigger. I think that's a lot how the world works… at least, that's how it was in my school.

My school, Watanabe Academy, was the movie-stereotypical high school, other than the fact that it was tiny beyond reason. Being cocky and manipulative would get you so far - but in order to be part of the most popular crowd, you had to be something more… you had to be a demon as well. Humans that were like them were the biggest suck-ups you'd ever meet.

Humans that didn't want any part of it, including me, were automatically looked at as rebellious and attention-grabbing; the popular kids thought we were against the demon versus human issue to draw more attention to ourselves. That in itself is pretty ironic. They would do absolutely anything to be adored.

It all started not too long after ninth grade had ended at my school, Grant Eldridge Middle. My mother and grandfather announced at dinner that we were to move, because of "bigger and better" opportunities for the four of us. It wasn't fair, especially to my younger brother Souta, who had one year left before graduating elementary school with the friends he'd had since preschool. Normally, I'd never _dream_ of yelling at Mama or Grandpa - but moving hours and hours away? Souta wasn't the only one who had best friends he'd known since preschool!

"You…can't be serious," I had said.

"Now, Kagome… it's for the best, and -" Mama started calmly.

"No! What about my school?" I snapped. "What about my friends? Especially Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi…am I supposed to just move on and make new friends at whatever school your heart desires!"

"You've just finished middle school. You don't even know what your high school is like, don't you start about missing your school," Mom said stiffly, obviously stressed.

"Oh, Kagome, you'll make new friends." Grandpa recited the old 'you'll make new friends and keep the old' routine. "And you'll keep in touch with your old friends, of course! You own a phone and a computer, don't you? With technology these days, you could keep in touch with your friends even if you moved to Britain! At least this is within Japan."

"It's Grant High. It's going to be the same as Grant Middle, the only difference being it's for older kids," I replied with a forced calm, ignoring Grandpa. I didn't want to accept the fact that the only relationship I'd have with my best friends would be pen pals in just a few short months.

Souta sat watching us, looking too horror-struck to talk - that, and he had probably decided that I was doing enough arguing for the both of us.

"Kagome Higurashi, this decision is final. Things are simply better there. Can't you understand that?" Mama said in the same tense tone I was using. Her voice was slowly rising.

"You're unbelievably selfish. We're not rich so you want to move where everything is cheaper?" I narrowed my eyes.

"You're the one who's being selfish. Don't you think this is hard on me, too? This is where your father and grandmother are buried. I am doing this for your benefit, Kagome, and your brother's. We are not moving because things are cheaper, you know that we have a fair amount of excess money, but because moving to a small town would do us some good. I hear that there is a very nice private school where you are allowed to wear your own clothes, and we will have a much bigger house. Grandpa will like it more because it is far away from the noise and the crowd of the city. Go to your room, and stay there for the rest of the night. I don't want to deal with your little attitude. And no dinner," she added, as I started to pick up my plate.

I slammed my plate down irritably and ran to my room, locking the door. I didn't mind the aching pains of hunger; I was too busy instant messaging my friends all night, telling them all about my plots to get Mama and Grandpa to reconsider…usually just to get an "Oh, Kagome…" in response. I was so annoyed that I blew up; furiously typing that they needed to take it seriously if they ever wanted to talk to me again.

Finally, Ayumi, the most sensible friend, called up and said softly, "Kagome… Listen to me. Running away, going on a hunger strike… I know you think it's serious, but it really is just a joke when you think about it. It's not going to work. We'll visit whenever we can, ok? It sucks, but your mom and grandpa really want what's best for you and Souta."

I sobbed something into the phone. Ayumi seemed to understand it, because she replied, "Of course it won't be the same. But that doesn't mean our friendship will change! You're my best friend, and moving won't change _that_."

---

I didn't accept what Ayumi said until after we had actually moved. Eri, Yuka, Ayumi, Rin, and Ayame called almost every day, to check in on me and talk about what we'd do the next time I visited them, or they came to visit me.

Eventually I actually started looking forward to school starting. I was going to make so many friends, and it'd be just like before. In no time I was bubbly and happy again. Our new house was nice, after all - it was three stories high with plenty of space, trees, and a river in our backyard, which Souta and I spent most of our summer in, splashing each other and doing handstands in the water. Mama would sit on a rock reading her book of the week, occasionally glancing up at us and smiling lightly. Once Grandpa was surprised us all and ran out cackling madly and screeching "CANNONBALL!" to do a 360 flip into the water instead and land on his back.

Soon enough, maybe too soon, I was starting school. And the thought was scary - it'd be ok though, right? Well, if it was going to be so damn ok then why was I so nervous?

I was really lucky to find Sango, Kikyou, and Shippo on the very first day. Watanabe Academy was a private grade 7-12 school, and the three of them had gone to grades 7-9 together. I, on the other hand, had spent my middle school years at Grant Eldridge Middle. Grant Middle had been a fairly decent sized school, and boy was I in for a surprise when the first day of school finally came.

Mom insisted on dropping Souta and I off, and since Watanbe Academy started before Summer Elementary, I was first to go. I took one look at the school and groaned.

"Kagome, dear, hurry, you'd best not be late on your first day…"

"Oh, Mama, look at it!" I exclaimed in horror

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Kagome," Mom sighed, giving me a kiss on the forehead.

I smiled reluctantly. "Alright, I'll try. I'll see you guys this afternoon, 'k?" I grabbed my rolling backpack by the handle and shoved it out the door. I turned to the car, waving as my mom and brother as they pulled away.

"Bye sis!" I heard Souta exclaim, and then they were gone.

I turned around with a feeling of foreboding and began the crooked, messy white concrete path. On either side of me were brown cracked old trees with awful broken limbs and scattered pieces of what looked suspiciously like old picnic benches all over the weed-infested yellow and brown grass. I grimaced as I stared up at the school again.

Watanabe Academy was a very small school. It was a white two-story outdoor building, with chipped paint all around the edges revealing a dull shade of grey… that, or the building had once been grey and that was all that was left. The room numbers were hanging on by one hinge, if not completely gone. The water fountains were way beyond use; the grey push-down bar was broken off. The signs of the bathrooms were broken off, so the first time I had to go I waited for someone to either go in or come out, too embarrassed to go look myself. The "cafeteria" was nothing more than a food stand with two rusty picnic benches in a weedy, grassy area to the right of the school.

The names of probably everyone who had gone there within the past 10 years were carved into the wood railings, along with the names of every couple that had ever existed. The best had to be "Miroku Loves Aya Kaia Itsuyo Mayu" … and the list continued.

"Kagome, don't let that spoil it for you," I told myself. "Don't judge a book by its cover, right? Not as schools are going to look quite as wonderful as Grant…with its grass being green and having an actual cafeteria and…alright, this school might suck, but I'm sure the people will be fine."

I was, of course, 5 minutes late with all of my staring and frowning on the way to room number 12 - math class. Well, might as well face the wrath of this new teacher…hopefully he wasn't a weirdo. Math teachers were usually weirdos. I took a deep breath and turned the rusty handle on the door and entered the room. The lighting was dim and the desks were all mismatched, almost like each desk was a leftover from another school. The green chalkboard looked like someone had run their fingers down it various times - someone with eerily sharp fingernails. There was no adult to be seen - apparently the teacher was late as well.

I spotted three kids sitting in the front, while the rest of the desks were completely filled, save for a few seats in the back - but the girls in the back didn't look particularly friendly. They saw me walk in and threw their backpacks on the two seats next to them and a hat in between the two seats. I shrugged; no big loss. I decided the front row looked like the best option.

"Hi!" I said, sliding into the seat next to the pale girl. This seat was a completely connected blue desk that had no real legs; the metal just rounded at the bottom. "I'm Kagome!" I pushed the handle of my blue roll-y backpack back into place and put it next to my desk.

"Hi Kagome, I'm Kikyou," the girl replied in a quiet monotone voice. She gave me the once-over and smirked slightly. "Welcome to the bottom of the food chain."

At the time, I had no idea how she could tell that just by looking at me. I was normal looking, with fairly trendy but still normal clothes. "Huh…?"

"I'm Shippo!" exclaimed a short squirrel-y looking boy before I could dwell on the comment even more. He was sitting on the other side of Kikyou. "And this is Sango!"

He pointed to the girl on the opposite side of him. She was about my shade, which was much tanner than the other two, with long dark brown hair and kind brown eyes. She waved at me, giving a small smile.

"Hi!" I called to the other two. I started small talk with Kikyou.

"So, what kind of music do you like?"

"Rap and heavy metal," she replied breezily.

"Oh…er…"

"Alright, class, shut up," a man said suddenly, walking into the room. He had long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and glasses. "My name is Kouga Wolfe." He wrote "Mr. Wolfe, Algebra 1" with a piece of chalk on the chalkboard.

He turned around to face the class. "Most of you have had me for middle school."

Was the school really that small? I twirled a thick lock of hair around my finger; I just so happened to have the most obvious nervous habit in the world.

He smirked ever-so-slightly. "But I see we have a few new students. Why don't you just go ahead and introduce yourselves? Let's start with the young lady in the front."

I stood up nervously, realizing that I _was _the only new girl, at least in this class. "Well…I'm Kagome Higurashi… I used to go to Grant Eldridge Middle back in Tokyo, but we ended up moving and coming here…and I'm looking forward to a great school year!"

Mr. Wolfe grinned at me and winked. "Well, Kagome, I'm sure you'll have a pretty nice year here, especially with me as your math teacher."

I smiled back weakly, extremely weirded out, and stared down at my desk as soon as he turned away. Great. My math teacher was not only a weirdo, he was a pedophile.

The door opened suddenly and four people walked in. The first I noticed automatically; he looked almost as if his had gone very grey very early, but upon closer inspection he had apparently dyed his silver. He also had amber-brown eyes and pointy dog ears at the top of his head, even weirder. The two others both were shorter than the silver-haired. One had a short ponytail, and the other had shoulder-length hair that was in serious need of a brush. All three of them had on baggy looking outfits.

"Ah, look at the Doggie and his gang. Hello demon sir, I'm so glad you could make it!" Mr. Wolfe said in a sarcastic tone that had just a pinch of spite.

"Wolfe, I'll kick your ass _again_," said the one with the dog-ears easily.

"Inuyasha!" a very short girl squealed from the back. She, too, had silvery hair and amber eyes.

"Naraku!" another girl exclaimed. She had black hair pulled into a bun and dark red eyes, hopefully colored contacts.

The guy with long black hair immediately sat next to the girl with creepy red eyes, while Dog-Ears sat next to the short girl with silver hair. The third guy sat in between the two, where the girls had thrown the hat.

"Hey…Kikyou…are you with us?" Shippo asked quietly, waving a hand in front of her face. Said girl was glaring daggers at Inuyasha, shaking her head slowly.

Well…it…could've been worse… we could've had an actual lesson on the first day.


	2. The Pretty Boy and Cupid's Game

**Candy Coated Chocolates**

**The Pretty Boy and Cupid's Game**

**Froggeh12**

**A/N: **_Hmm, not much to say here. Again, please review if you read. It's a nice thing to do. ;_

This school was turning out to be even worse than what I had originally thought.

I was trying so hard (kind of) to be optimistic; I had _tried_ to talk to "them". All of them, the idiot populars from math, had the same lunch period together, which wasn't surprising considering there were only two - one for 10th and 11th graders, and one for 12th.

I had gotten to the food area before everyone else that awful first day (with a rolly backpack, who needs lockers anyhow?), and they were the first to arrive right after me. I picked up a dark blue tray and placed it down on the metal bars. I grabbed an orange juice out of the icy metal container and slid to the left where the food was. I recognized the girl with silver hair and smiled at her. "Hi."

"Hey." She grabbed a plate with some sort of sandwich on it and went around me to pay at the register. She hadn't even glanced over to see who had spoken.

I frowned to myself. Whatever, she was short anyhow. Shortie.

As I decided on what I wanted (sandwich, ramen, sandwich, ramen…) Dog-Ears, or Inuyasha, came up behind me. I narrowed my eyes, still deciding, and started using the only logical way to pick something - eeny meeny miney mo.

"My god, could you _possibly_ be any slower?" Dog-Ears hissed, grabbing a bowl of ramen and walking around me as well, this time though I got a good shove.

"Hey!" I hissed, grabbing him by his weird dog ear and yanking him back. "Who do you think you are?"

"Get off me, bitch!" he yelped, obviously taken by surprise. He dropped the bowl of ramen.

"Don't call me bitch!" I snapped in reply. "I'm Kagome!"

"Feh. Whatever." He glared at me and went back over towards the cash register.

I glared at him in response, though slightly surprised that he had just walked away…and immediately saw why. His stupid girlfriend was shaking her head at him, as though to say "I'm bored, let's go".

His short girlfriend stood next to the small register, tapping her foot impatiently as he paid for his new bowl of ramen. They were already getting on my nerves, just by going to lunch! I decided on the sandwich and made my way over to the tiny cash register; tiny, just like everything else in this stupid school.

The old woman running the register, probably not an employee but an employee's mom, barely glanced up at me before saying, "700 yen please."

"…" I sighed and fished out 700 yen. Not only was this school small, it was big on making money too. I frowned and glanced at the building again. What were they using it on, exactly?

I paid the woman and looked around to see that Kikyou, Shippo, and Sango had gotten one of the two picnic benches while I was getting food. They had all brought their lunches. _That's what I ought to do…700 yen for a measly sandwich and a carton of orange juice…_

Sango, the girl from math class, looked up from the picnic bench nearest the food stand and saw me immediately. She smiled and called, "Kagome, sit over here!"

At least someone was attempting to be nice. I smiled back and made me way over to the table, sitting in between Shippo and Sango and opposite Kikyou. "Hi guys."

"Yo," Kikyou and Shippo replied distractedly. Kikyou was busy picking at her food while Shippo was concentrating on some PSP game that had a lot of booms and shrieks.

Sango seemed to notice their warm welcome. She rolled her eyes and said, "Don't mind them. How were the rest of your classes today?"

Like going to Hell and back. "Oh, they were…great!"

Kikyou looked up, smirking, and said in an "I know something you don't know" voice, "Oh?" She paused to take a bite out of her chicken. "I suppose you're at least partially demon and have the worst personality in the world, then."

"Huh? Um… no."

Shippo was still playing his PSP game. Sango opened her mouth to protest angrily, but I shook my head at her.

"Then I don't think your classes were great."

"Be nice, Kiki." I turned around to see two foreign-looking girls, who looked exactly the same except for their hair color; one had curly red hair and the other had fluffy blonde hair. They had the same smiles - innocence with a hint of quirk, and matching wide, bright features, with big soft blue eyes. Both were rather short, but not quite as short as Shippo or Inuyasha's girlfriend.

"Sophie! Evana!" Kikyou almost shrieked, standing up from her side of the picnic table and running to hug both of them. The girls hugged back warmly and giggled.

Good, _now_ she was friendly…

The two girls set their trays down on either side of Kikyou, and looked over at me with interest. "Are you Kagome?" asked the blonde. She had a very slight American accent.

I nodded hesitantly. "Not to sound rude, since you seem to know about me, but… who are you two?"

"I'm Sophie Brown," the blonde answered. "And this is my twin sister Evana."

Evana grinned. "Hi Kagome, it's so nice to meet you!" Evana had a bit of a heavier accent than Sophie, but not by much.

"You too," I replied and gave a grin in return. What was weird, though, was that these girls were obviously good, if not best friends with such a dull and cruelly blunt person like Kikyou.

I started up a conversation with Sango. "How was your summer, Sango?"

I looked to Sango on my right, who was scowling slightly at Kikyou. She hadn't heard me. I frowned and looked back over at the three girls on the other side of the table. Kikyou was chatting happily to Sophie and Evana about gymnastics competitions.

I cleared my throat lightly. Sango jumped and looked at me. "Oh, sorry… what was the question?"

"Summer…how was it?"

"Oh, it was great!" she exclaimed, giving a smile. "I spent a lot of it in the river."

I nodded and thought of more small-talk topics. "Do you have any siblings?"

"I've got a thirteen-year-old brother and a four-year-old sister. Do you?"

"An eleven-year-old brother," I said, and quickly changed the subject to something I had been wondering about since first period. "So what do you know about the whole demon thing?"

Sango blinked, taken a back at the bluntness, but explained anyway. "Being a demon almost always means popularity here. Demons are well-liked for their power and have been ever since middle school started, when slowly the city office and police force started to consist entirely of demons. So of course, more demons came to schools… and demons were already known for power, so they used it to their advantage. They walk all over people like us."

"As in humans?"

"Well, being humans and that we're not conniving obnoxious whores, yes. They rather like those as well, but still not the same as being one of them. People like them think we're 'rebellious' because we're normal and don't want to be like them, or even, gasp, suck up to demons."

"Those two…the ones that had black hair that were with Dog - …I mean, Inuyasha. Weren't they human? Are they one of those exceptions?"

Sango considered for a moment. "Well, the one with the longer hair is Naraku, a hanyou…just like Inuyasha. The one with a ponytail is Miroku…he's not so bad, really, but he was friends with the demons way back when they were kids, way before being a demon was being cool. I guess he was kind of a leftover after sixth grade."

I nodded. Demons had never been popular back in Tokyo…in fact, the only demon I knew of was old Mr. Yasubi, a turtle demon who was about as harmless as an actual turtle. I knew entire cities that were ruled by demons, however. This was probably one of them, if not close to it.

Sango's voice broke my train of thought. "Don't worry about it, though. They're not worth it." She gave a playful smirk. "We, on the other hand, are, along with a couple of handfuls of people over there." She pointed to the grass, where some people were actually using the bundles of weeds as pillows as they ate. This was going to have to take some getting used too…

---

Three weeks later, I was about as used to it as I was going to get.

It was test time in history, the period right before gym class. We had five minutes left of class and I had six out of twenty questions filled out. Evana, it seemed, was doing a bit worse than me.

"Kagome…" she hissed from her seat behind me, poking me in the back with the end of her pencil. "Who the hell is Oda Nobunaga?"

Yes, it seemed she was doing slightly worse than I was. I looked down to the question I was presently working on, wanting to finish my own work before cheating for someone else.

"13. The period between the years of 1573 and 1603 are also known as…"

I groaned softly as the bell rang. "Oh no, it's early!"

The bell was really an alarm clock in each room, which the teacher set before each class started, usually absent-mindedly. The classes were each 43 minutes long, so the teacher would just glance at the current time whenever they felt like it, before or after class started it didn't matter, and add roughly 40 minutes. Sometimes the "bell" would ring 10 minutes after class had actually ended.

"Papers forward…" The teacher, Mr. Tsuyu, stood at the front of the class, glancing down idly at the shrieking ring of the clock before slamming his fist down on the button.

There was a collective sigh from the class as papers were shuffled forward to the front of each row. Tsuyu walked across the front row, his hand out expectantly as he was handed the stacks of tests from the head of each row. And now the customary "let's pick on those who sucked"…

"Mm…I see that someone put down that Oda Nobunaga was a famous Egyptian poet from the 18th century… _nice_ guess but wrong!"

I could almost feel Evana blush furiously from behind me as she coughed lightly and stirred in her seat.

He always did that, that special emphasis on "nice" thing, like he was mocking us for getting an answer wrong.

"And I see here that someone put that the time period we've been discussing is called the era of I'm…WHAT? Miss Higur -"

A loud **_wham_** that sounded suspiciously like a fist against the brittle door interrupted. Mr. Tsuyu looked up, obviously not pleased at being interrupted from one of his lectures. "Stop fooling around out there!"

"Oh, shut up!" The irritable reply of a certain hanyou came as he entered the classroom. "We've been waiting out there for 10 minutes. Class happened to _end_ 10 minutes ago."

Tsuyu glanced down at the clock and sighed. "Too true… alright, class dismissed then."

I calmly gathered my supplies and shoved them haphazardly into my book bag. Evana, the only one of my 5 friends who had history at the same time I did, waited at the door patiently. I walked up and she immediately broke into a grin. "What exactly did your paper say?"

"The era of I'm an ass wipe," I replied briskly, remembering to keep a fair pace down the hall, if you could call the winding walkways around the building a hall. The walkways wrapped completely around the two-story building, with a fair amount of classrooms on each side. Even so, this wouldn't be nearly enough for a normal grade 7-12 school.

"Ah, damn, he almost said it too," Evana groaned. She stopped outside of the girls locker rooms and flung the door open. I caught it and stepped in.

"There you two are!"

I jumped and turn to my left to see Sango sitting on the sinks counter, her knees pulled up to her chest as she adjusted her ponytail. Kikyou was leaning against the wall next to Sango. Being 10 minutes late to class, I hadn't expected anyone to be there.

"You didn't expect us to go to gym class without you?" Sango asked, smirking and jumping down. "Hurry up; I've got detention today as it is."

"What for?" I asked, frowning. "Was it something bad?"

"Locking Miroku in the supply closet again… it was an honest mistake, really. You see, he grabbed my ass. I was so shocked that I ran out, accidentally forgot he was in there, and put a chair underneath the handle."

"What exactly were you doing in a supply closet with Miroku?" Kikyou raised an eyebrow.

Sango blushed. "Don't get any perverted ideas. I was sent for chalk and he was sent for a broom."

"Right…anyway, I'm surprised they even have detention at this school, rather than assigning you to be a slave to some demon for a day," I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

Sango laughed at that and repeated, "Hurry up. Evana's dressed already."

"What?" I demanded crossly, looking over to see Evana sticking out her tongue and waving. I quickly pulled off the school uniform and replaced it with a gym shirt and shorts. "Let's go."

"Geez, Kagome, competitive much."

---

"Now today we are practicing archery; take advantage of it as the equipment is on loan from another school. How many of you have done archery before?"

Kikyou was the only one who raised her hand. She looked a bit smug about it.

"Good, I see there's at least one person who can maybe help out." The gym coach came around, passing each of us a bow and arrow. She had quite easily taken our excuse of being late from history class. "Now stand with your feet parallel to your shoulders, and make sure there's an equal amount of weight on each foot to maintain balance. Nock your arrow like so." She demonstrated taking the arrow and putting it into its place. She walked around to make sure everyone had it. "Now…take your index finger and curl it around the bowstring, above the arrow, and put your second and third fingers underneath. Make sure to keep your thumb and remaining finger away from the rest and out of the way." She continued on with tell us exactly how to hold the bow properly, where to stretch it to, and how to aim for the target. By the time she was done, I felt like I could be an expert.

"I want to try!" I exclaimed. I did everything she told me to, which apparently made me look like an awkward mess, because my friends took one look at me and bust out laughing.

"Kagome…come here…" Kikyou sighed patiently. She took my fingers and rearranged them against the bow string ("Ahh, so the index finger goes on the top…but then where does the thumb go, the bottom?") and put the bow in the proper position. She smiled at me. "Try now."

I released and the arrow went straight past its target … right into someone else. "UGH..." the "someone else" groaned.

I gasped and ran over to the person, presumably male, who had stopped in his tracks to glance at the damage. Evana and Sango seemed to find this hysterical and fell into laughing fits all over again, while Kikyou simply quirked a smile.

"Hey! Are you ok?" I called, running to the person.

He turned to me and I had to hold myself back from gasping. He was the prettiest pretty-boy I had ever seen! His face was feminine, but hey, that's a pretty boy for you. He had silver hair and golden eyes, but they were somehow much more enchanting than Inuyasha's. His eyes… they looked like they hold you in place just by looking them and keep you there for the rest of eternity. Whether it was because they were brimming with warmth or just extremely cold, I wasn't sure. He had a purple crescent moon mark on his forehead and two purple lines on each side of his face.

He pulled the arrow out from his arm, which I noticed also had purple marks on them. "Yes, it's pretty blunt. It's strange that it stuck in the first place." He handed the arrow to me and started to walk away.

"Wait! Wait…What's your name?" I couldn't help myself. I had to know.

"Sesshomaru," he replied and continued to walk on. I stood in place for a few moments, watching him leave, before slowly heading back.

"Woah," I gasped to Sango, Kikyou, and Evana. "That was like, love at first sight or something."

"Or maybe he's just pretty," Evana pointed out. "Anyway, he's a demon; Inuyasha's half-brother, in fact."

I sighed. "Oh…"

"Er…but apparently he's nothing like his brother!" Evana added, noting my crestfallen expression.

Kikyou gave a rare grin. "Well, you never know. Archery _is_ Cupid's game, isn't it?"


	3. Brand Names

**Brand Names**

**Candy Coated Chocolates**

**Froggeh12**

**A/N: **_This is the chapter where Inuyasha starts to become more of a main character. Once again, please review, _especially _if you have critique, as long as it's not "u suck k bai". I'm never going to get better without knowing what I'm doing wrong… right? XD Almost twice as long chapter this time!_

That night, I couldn't remember anything beyond that archery incident. I think Naraku yanked on my ponytail or something in the cafeteria line, but nothing seemed more important than talking to Sesshomaru. There was something so incredible about his presence… he was so different from the other demons at this school. I called Rin that night.

"Oh, he was so cool!"I gushed. "Rin, you'd love him." Rin had always been drawn to those quiet types. I guess she was a firm believer in "opposites attract".

"Ooh, guess I'll have to see when we visit!" Rin said happily.

"Yeah, that's right!" I replied. "When are you guys coming, again?"

"Umm-uh… it's when we have that week off that you don't…today next month!"

"Oh…" I sighed.

That long? I could've sworn that more time had passed. I missed my old friends like crazy. Eri, Yuka, Ayumi, Rin, and Ayame were all coming to stay at my house for 9 days… for some reason public school had off an entire week of school while my private school was still in session.

"Kagome, that's not that far away, is it? Come on, think of the fun we'll have! It'll be fun!" Rin squealed in her best comforting voice. Rin was too naïve and giggly to be comforting. Sophie and Evana reminded me of her a way.

"Easy for you to say - you all see each other every day. I haven't seen you in three months and by the time I do it'll be over four."

"We're not _that_ interesting; you're getting on without us! You said you have new friends, right?"

"Yes, but they're not you guys."

I wasn't sure what I had meant by that… my new friends were great, weren't they? But again, they weren't _them_… the friends that I grew up with. We had played tea party and dress-up together… we had banded together against scary big kids at Halloween… we had taken double-dutch jump rope, competed, and won… we had went to Backstreet Boys concerts and squealed over our pre-teen crushes.

Then all of a sudden we were older, and realized that boys weren't quite as fun anymore - they could be difficult and heartbreaking. We realized that parents made mistakes, too. We realized that some drugs wouldn't exactly help the flu; that some kids had known that long before we had.

The day that Rin lost her cat, and we all spent eight hours looking for it, the day Yuka had gotten her first kiss, only to find out that he had a girlfriend, when Ayumi was the first in our grade to get braces, when Eri found out she hadn't made cheerleading, the time Ayame's parents got a divorce, the day my dad died of cancer… big problem or small, we were there to help each other through it.

"Cheer up Kagome, the month will pass you by in a flash! Oh, I gotta go help my mom with dinner, talk to you tomorrow, m'kay?"

There was a click and the dial tone sounded. "Yeah…" I sighed. I punched the end button and threw the phone down on the bed. My thoughts once again drifted back to Sesshomaru. _Ah…much better._

---

"Kagome, time to get up!" my mother called. Evil brightness filled the room as she yanked open the curtains. "Rise and shine, it's time for school."

"Mmf…" I muttered in reply, reaching to pull my pillow around my head - only to discover that I wasn't sleeping on a pillow. I cracked an eyelid open to see that I had fallen asleep sprawled across the foot of my bed. My legs were hanging off the side.

"Ugh… what a way to fall asleep," I groaned. I got up and stretched. "Must've dozed off at some point there."

"Get dressed," Mom said, pointing a stern finger at my dresser. "You're going to be late as it is. Someone forgot to set their alarm clock."

"Yeah, yeah…"

She walked swiftly out of the room and closed the door behind her.

I pulled on my school uniform and ran a brush through my hair, then trudged over to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.

"Kagome, hurry up!" Souta called from outside the bathroom door. "Your bus left twenty minutes ago and my school starts in ten minutes!"

"Mk uhn sekhund," I answered through a mouth full of tooth paste. I finished up and walked out yawning.

"No time for breakfast, just grab a cereal bar or something," Mom sighed. "I have to drive you again… we're all going to be late today."

I blushed. "Sorry…"

"Let's just leave now."

I grabbed a cereal bar as she had suggested and walked out to the car. Souta was already there pouting.

"What is it? You can't like school _that_ much."

"It's not that! I…I can't be late again!"

I raised an eyebrow and turned around to give him a sharp look. "What do you mean 'again'? You take the bus."

He squirmed in his seat and looked away. "I uh… I hate science."

Ahh… now I understood. "Souta, you can't just skip!" I scolded furiously.

"But I'm not the only one!" he complained. "Ben and Itsuo skip too!"

"Then you shouldn't be with them!" I snapped.

"They're not my boyfriends, Kagome."

"Listen to me, I'm serious! Do you really want to be known as the troublemaker? Stop or I'll tell Mom."

He glared at me and sighed. "Don't worry about it. My teacher is suspicious of something, and said she'll phone our parents next time we're late."

"You know this is for your own good, right?" I said softly. "You're still in elementary school."

"Yes. Now let's drop it," Souta muttered, watching our mother walk towards the car.

"And we're off," Mom said irritably. "Finally."

I was extremely relieved when she finally reached Souta's school, and even more relieved when I reached my own school. I was quite late, but anything was better than having to be in the car with my mom when she had road rage. Being late always put her in an awful mood.

I sighed and walked intoscience class grudgingly.

"Ah, nice of you to join us…" The science teacher, Mrs. Sato began, before turning around and beaming instantly. "Oh, Kagome! Have a seat!"

I sighed. Teachers seemed to favor me at this school. I looked over and saw Inuyasha snickering. Kikyou glared at him from the front row and flicked him off. He instantly fell silent and looked away irritably.

I took my seat next to Kikyou and whispered, "Do you have magical powers or something?"

Kikyou shrugged. "No. We just have a bit of… bad blood between us. Don't worry about him; he's not as tough as he looks."

I felt bad about my feelings towards Kikyou earlier. After the first week, Kikyou had started to warm up. She had gotten a lot nicer as I got to know her better.

"Oh, by the way Kagome…" Mrs. Sato began. I looked up at her. "There's a project." She smirked at Inuyasha. "I guess your plans to be alone have changed, Inuyasha. Meet your new partner, Kagome Higurashi."

"Umm… wait… what!"

"Sorry Kagome," she said apologetically. "Inuyasha was also a bit late. Neither of you were here when we were choosing partners."

"No!" Inuyasha snapped. "Can't I do it myself anyhow?"

"No, Mr. Hidaka. You chose to come late, and therefore you do not get to choose your partner." She looked at me again. "Sorry again Miss Higurashi, but I can't allow you to go without a partner either." She handed me a packet of information about the project.

I shot a glare at Kikyou and then over at Sophie. "Thanks a lot, friends."

"Sorry," Kikyou said sincerely. "But Sophie and I assumed that there would be some option for you other than _him_."

I sighed and glanced over the project. Apparently it was a _year-long_ thing. It would be showcased at the end of the year and they were giving us a nice big jump start on it. It was required that one of us went to the other's house twice a month.

"Ok, so if he comes to my house, do I have to be there?" I said quietly to myself.

Kikyou heard me and smirked. "It'll be ok, Kagome. He won't kill you. Promise."

---

Sango gasped. "No! Sato made you partners with Inuyasha? Inuyasha Hidaka?"

It was lunch time, and while the others were at the picnic table, Sango and I were eating lunch underneath the tree, where we had the rare treat of sitting on cut grass at the school. I was telling her about my latest life problem.

"Yes!" I groaned. "Isn't it awful?"

"Terrible," she said sympathetically. "My partner is Shippo. Evana got that one girl, Emi."

"Well, that's perfect! I'll ask to be with Evana!"

Sango shook her head. "Emi and Evana's mothers are best friends. The mothers have known each other since high school, back when Emi's mother lived in America as well. Evana's mom would be furious if she found out that she left Emi to be with some thug like Inuyasha. Besides…" She suddenly grinned. "Sesshomaru _is_ Inuyasha's brother!"

"Oh. My. God. He is!" I squealed.

Sango laughed. "I know you, Kagome. You can turn any situation like this around and make it something good. Trust me."

I smiled at Sango, surprised to realize she was right. Not just about my ability to turn bad situations good, but about knowing me well. Sango and I had become fast friends and pretty good ones, too.

"You're right… I'll try to turn it into something good." I sighed again. "Tonight is the first little meeting… I'm going over to his house, at least."

"That's the spirit," Sango said cheerfully. She took out her paper bag lunch and cringed upon seeing an egg salad sandwich. She glanced down at my half eaten turkey sandwich. "Um… wanna trade?"

---

"Kagome, I'm sure he's really a nice boy, he just shows off in front of his friends," Mom said cheerfully. She was driving me to Inuyasha's house, as he lived two cities over.

"No, Mom. I'm sure this is the kind of guy where what you see is what you get."

"Well, either way, try your best. Don't let this bias of yours ruin your grade."

"It's a justified bias, Mom!"

"Do your best, Kagome."

"I will, I will…" I sighed as the car rolled to a stop. "Thanks for the ride. Pick me up in two hours."

"You have your cell phone just in case, right?"

"They have phones at their house."

"Kagome Maya Higurashi, do you have your cell phone?"

"Yes, I have my cell! Bye Mom!" I sent an annoyed glance her way before slamming the car door shut and running up to the Hidaka house. She could be so overprotective.

I suppressed the sudden urge to go running back into the car. I did _not_ want to spend two hours here…well, not with Inuyasha anyhow. I reminded myself for the twelfth time that I probably wouldn't even see Sesshomaru. Before I could even reach the doorbell, a woman opened the door. I jumped and looked at her. "Hello, um, I'm here to…"

"Oh, I know why you're here, Kagome! You have a project with Inuyasha!" The woman smiled warmly. She was very pretty with long, straight black hair, a pale complexion, and dark brown eyes. She opened the door even wider in invitation to go inside. "Come on in. I'm Mrs. Hidaka, of course."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Hidaka," I said politely and stepped inside the house. It was an average-looking house; I had expected Inuyasha to live in an area with gang fights and drug peddlers. I was almost positive I had made a mistake until Sesshomaru stepped down the stairs. He paused for a moment, gave me a nod of recognition, and carried on walking to the kitchen.

Mrs. Hidaka touched my arm lightly. "You'd better go and get started on your project, dear. Inuyasha's room is the third door to the right."

I nodded. "Thank you." I watched her walk away before walking slowly up the steps. Down the hall I counted the doors to the right. One…two…three, ok, here it was.

I knocked on the door. "Inuyasha, uh… it's me. Kagome."

He opened the door and scowled. "Come on, let's get this over with."

I walked in and took a glance around. It was the typical teenage boy's room - a lot like my eleven-year-old brothers, except with more posters and junk on the floor. I walked over to his computer desk and he flopped down on his bed. "Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked carefully, pointing to his computer chair. He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"So, do you have an ideas for the experiment were supposed to do?" I asked.

"Nope."

I scowled. "Uh, ok…what kind of thing do you think we should do? We could do plants, those are the easiest…"

"I don't care."

"Well you have to care!" I snapped, getting up and glaring at him.

"Keh," he scoffed and turned away.

"Inuyasha!" I grabbed a lock of his hair and yanked. "This is your project too! If you think I'm going to sit here and do your project for you, you are _so_ sadly mistaken, and… um… what are you staring at?"

He had turned around and was staring at me with a sneer. "You think you're so tough, don't you?"

"That's my line!" I hissed. "You're the one who goes around school campus acting like you're better than everyone!"

"And you're the one who acts like I'm a ticking time bomb and lasting around me for five seconds will make you a hero."

"I do not!"

He mimicked a ditzy high-pitched voice. "Oh, um… so… you're not going to hack me up into little pieces of I walk inside your room, do you? We should do plants, because those are the easiest and I want to make sure you get the easiest topic for your little hanyou brain, sir."

I scowled. "I have no desire to do this project with you, and I know you'd rather be science partners with one of your little demon buddies but hey, that's what happens sometimes. Let's just work together the best we can until this whole mess is over with."

"Then stop whining and pick a topic already."

"I need your cooperation!"

"Alright, fine! I'm cooperating!" he snapped, sitting up.

"Ok, so," I continued, as though nothing had just happened. "Plants are really boring to do, so I was thinking maybe like… a survey. It'd make it at least kind of interesting."

"Right, and what do you want this survey to be on?"

"Mm…well, you know how all of these grocery stores and stuff make their own brands, and people say they like name brands better? Like…Rice Krispies versus crispy rice cereal. Well, what if we first question the people as to which they like better, name brand or store brand, and then test it?"

"And we will test it by…"

I rolled my eyes. "Blindfolding the people and having them try each one, and asking if they liked the first or second better."

"Ok, fine with me."

"Fine," I replied, scribbling down what I had just said. "So… now what?"

Inuyasha looked down at his information packet. "It just says to discuss the project on the first night." He shrugged. "And our parents have to sign off on us discussing it for two hours." He turned his attention towards the television in his room. "So let's watch TV."

I blinked in surprise. "Ok, sure."

He took the black remote and turned the tv on, which was much closer and easier to see from his bed. I craned my neck to watch.

Inuyasha glanced over at me and rolled his eyes. He moved slightly to the right on the bed. "You can sit down here, you know. I won't shoot you."

"I'm fine, thanks." But I really wasn't. It sucked having to watch it from across the room, so I gave up after another minute or so and lied down on my stomach…on the bed of the rudest demon in school.

"Fine, huh?"

"Oh, shut up," I muttered, directing my attention towards the movie that was on.

---

After another hour and 45 minutes, the movie was ending. I was crying as I watched the end - the boyfriend had ended up dying in the war.

Inuyasha turned his attention to the doorway suddenly. "What do you want, Sesshomaru?"

I looked over to see Sesshomaru standing there. He gave a smirk. "Sorry to interrupt your study session, but Izayoi wanted to know if Kagome wanted to stay for dinner. We're having oden."

"I…I'll call my mom," I sniffed. I was so embarrassed - here was the gorgeous Sesshomaru and I was sitting here with awful puffy red eyes. I was surprised I hadn't refused right away… must've been Sesshomaru there… or the oden.

Sesshomaru waited at the doorway, not taking another step closer, as I called my mom. I got the faint idea that he wasn't too fond of his brother.

"Hello?" I heard Souta's voice answer.

"S-Souta, put Mom on."

"Why are you crying?" Souta demanded suddenly. "Did he make you cry?"

"N-no, no, just a movie, now put Mom on!"

"Alright, hang on." I heard him calling for Mom in the background.

"Hello?" Mom answered.

"Mom, is it ok if I stay for dinner? Just pick me up a half hour later, I suppose."

"Kagome, are you sure? Are they in the room with you right now?" Mom asked suspiciously.

"Mm…yeah…but, yeah," I said, trying to find the best way to be discreet about letting her know that yes, they were in the room with me, but no, they weren't holding a gun to my head so I could have dinner with them.

"Well…if you want. I'll see you in about half an hour then."

"Alright, thanks… bye!"

"Bye, honey."

I slapped the flip phone shut. "She says it's fine."

Sesshomaru nodded and walked out. "She says yes, Izayoi…"

Inuyasha got off the bed and crossed the room to slam the door shut. "God I hate him."

"Why? He seems really nice."

Inuyasha snorted. "I guess you're one of his drooling fan girls."

_What, there's more?_ I thought desperately.

Inuyasha seemed to be able to read minds, because he replied, "Yep, everyone's after Sesshomaru. You're just one of his thousands of obsessees."

I shrugged. "Whatever." I didn't try to deny it; he was the type to believe whatever they wanted anyhow. "So, Inuyasha…what's with you and Kikyou?"

His ears twitched upon hearing me mention Kikyou. "Nothing," he said gruffly.

"Yeah, right, "nothing"! Kikyou admitted that there was something herself. Kikyou is one of my good friends - I think I'd believe her word over yours!" I persisted.

Inuyasha frowned. "She's uh… my ex, and it wasn't a good break up. That's about it."

"What happened?"

He glanced at me, almost like he was about to answer… before simply shrugging. "It's none of your business."

"I'll find out from her, eventually."

"Well then fine, but I'm not going to," he replied simply.

I was about to say something about how he might as well tell me, then, but Mrs. Hidaka interrupted from the bottom of the stairs. "Inuyasha, Kagome! Dinner's done!"

"Coming!" Inuyasha shouted back. "Come on." He led the way out of the room. I followed him, but not without sneaking one last glance at the movie. The girl had found a new love. I sighed. _Typical, of course…_

---

"So, Kagome, we haven't heard much of you from Inuyasha. What kind of sports do you do?" Mr. Hidaka asked, starting polite conversation.

"Gymnastics," I replied. "I'm on the gymnastics team… or at least, I was. We're trying to find a gym around here."

"Ah," Inuyasha's parents said, nodding.

"She sucks at archery," Sesshomaru said suddenly, giving a small hint of a grin.

"Sesshomaru, that's rude!" Mrs. Hidaka scolded.

"That's ok," I said, laughing. I was just happy he had remembered. "This is really good, by the way, Mrs. Hidaka."

"Oh, thank you," Mrs. Hidaka said sincerely. "I'm glad you like it. So how is your project coming along?"

"We've decided to a survey," Inuyasha said suddenly, before I could answer. "About name brands and stuff."

"Well, that's interesting," Mrs. Hidaka replied, nodding.

We spent the rest of the evening making small talk about school. I was surprised at how friendly his parents were, and even Sesshomaru made an attempt at conversation. Inuyasha was the only one who ate silently for the rest of dinner. At the end, I got up to help clear away dishes.

"Oh, no, Kagome," Mr. Hidaka said, taking my plate with his to bring to the kitchen. "You're our guest."

"Thank you," I smiled. They were so nice!

A couple of seconds later, the doorbell rang.

"That must be my mom," I said as Sesshomaru got up to answer. He nodded and answered the door. He greeted whoever it was and let them come through the door. Rather than it being my mother, it was Souta.

"C'mon sis, time to go," Souta said. He looked over at Inuyasha and gave a wave. "Hey."

"Hey kid," Inuyasha said with indifference.

"Alright, I'll be leaving then!" I called to the Hidaka parents in the kitchen.

"Bye, Kagome, dear!" called Mrs. Hidaka, as Mr. Hidaka came out to shake my hand and say goodbye.

"You're welcome back any time you'd like," Mr. Hidaka said with a smile.

"Thank you!" I replied. I gathered up my school bag and turned to Inuyasha. "Well…bye."

"Later."

"Bye Sesshomaru," I said as I walked out with Souta.

"I'll see you in school, Kagome."

My heart fluttered. He'll see me in school? Hopefully…!

I got into the car with Souta. Mom turned to me. "How was it, Kagome?"

"It was…pretty nice, actually." And that was the truth.

**A/N: **_I know, I know… doesn't seem very InuxKag yet. But you just wait. XD_


	4. Our Gang

**Our Gang**

**Candy Coated Chocolates**

**Froggeh12**

**A/N:** _Thank you to everyone who's read, and especially to those who have reviewed. :D Please note that I have changed a couple of things in the first few chapters - you can re-read them if you like, but it probably won't make too much of a difference. I just thought of a few new things to make the story make more sense. This chapter is named for its ending._

…_Anyone read chapter 464 of Inuyasha manga? ;; If you haven't, you really should. It's so sad, but in a way, it's good._

_And, of course, don't forget to review._

First period on the next day of school was awkward.

No, I mean, it was _really_ awkward.

Of course, the human girls who swooned hopelessly over the demon guys were making every attempt to make me feel miserable about going over to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's place. Most of them knew that it was because of a science fair but chose they'd rather believe something else.

As soon as I walked into first period, math this time, I was caught in an ambush.

"Oh look, it's the little rebellious slut!"

"I thought you and your friends hated demons?"

"Yeah Kagome, what happened to that?"

"What? I don't hate demons!" I sputtered, trying to find a way through the crowd to my desk.

By then Kikyou had gotten up and walked over. "She doesn't hate demons; she hates girls like you who grovel over them like they're gods. Now screw off, all of you."

"I bet you're pretty jealous of Kagome, Kikyou."

Inuyasha chose that moment to walk into class. Everyone stopped what they were doing to turn and look at him. He blinked. "What?"

Kikyou whipped around to face him. "Tell your little drones to lay off Kagome!" she said furiously.

"_She_ was at your house last night?" a girl demanded to Inuyasha, grabbing onto my hair angrily. I recognized her as… oh no… Inuyasha's girlfriend. It was absolutely shocking to hear her speak and act so loud and animatedly. Usually she was a bit on the quiet and boring side.

Shippo came up behind the girl. He grabbed her shoulders and yanked her back away from me. "Grow up, Kanna!" he scoffed.

"Get off me!" she snapped, elbowing him in the chest. He yelped and staggered backwards.

"Shippo!" Sango exclaimed, going over to his side like he was a fallen soldier in a war.

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that? All of this over the damn science project? Kanna, I wouldn't cheat on you with HER." He winked at Kikyou. "Maybe her."

Kagome, Kikyou, and Kanna all turned a crimson shade of red, each for their own reasons.

"Fuck you and your gargantuan-sized ego Inuyasha, it's over!" Kanna spat, scowling. "I'm so sick of you treating me like this, like I'm your little plaything!"

Inuyasha frowned slightly before shrugging it off and walking over to his desk.

Shippo grinned. "Hey Kanna, you learned a new word today!"

Kanna gave him a shove in the chest and sat in the back next to the other demon girl, Kagura, who looked over disdainfully at her friend. Apparently Kagura was embarrassed at the huge scene Kanna had caused.

"Was that…hurt I just saw on Inuyasha's face?" I muttered to Shippo as I returned to my seat.

"Possibly," Shippo replied. "It took him years to get Kanna… I would know, I'm her brother." He rolled his eyes.

"What?" I demanded. "Shippo, I never knew that! You're twins, then? Wait…but then doesn't that make you..."

"A demon? Hah, yeah! But do I act like them, Kagome?" he said scornfully. "Don't forget how they act. It's not all about being a demon… you have to be like them. Humans could act the same way, and you know it as much as I do. They're manipulative… they ignore you completely if you don't seem valuable at first… and as soon as they think you could be worth something, they draw you in by acting nice and letting you in on the jokes. The way they treat each other… they talk about each other all the time."

He looked directly at me, as if to say 'I know everything'. "Don't _fall_ for it Kagome, I don't want you to get your heart broken. They're not nice people."

"Aww, Shippo," I said, giving him a quick hug and feeling almost guilty about staying for dinner. "It's ok; I can take care of myself! Thank you, though."

Shippo blushed and nodded. "You'd better sit down now," he said quietly as the door opened. I looked around, realizing that I had been kneeling beside Shippo's desk the entire time.

"Damn, could you possibly be any later?" a girl in the back said - presumably Kanna's friend who seemed too big to comfort her.

"Shut up," snapped Mr. Wolfe, or Kouga as he had told me to call him (_humiliating!_). "Now, to begin today's lesson…"

Usually I try my hardest to listen in math. After all, I suck at it, so I need to pay attention to it most. But today, I had tuned him out by the word "lesson". I was thinking about how Kagura, presumably a good friend of Kanna's, had just watched Kanna cry miserably for the rest of class. I thought of the hurt look I saw on Inuyasha's face. That wasn't just because it was hard work going to waste… maybe he had really loved Kanna. But then why would he say something like that?

Shippo had been right. They really were jerks, weren't they?

…At the same time, I felt holes burn in the back of my head as all of the swooning human girls continued to death glare at me.

---

After math and language, it was time for the dreaded science - third period today. I sighed and made my way around the walkway winding around the building. Language was completely opposite to science - which was to my advantage. The later I had to present with that air-head the better, after all. I walked a bit slower than usual as well; the building wasn't that big, after all.

I watched birds flutter around happily, darting around the dying trees. For the first time in my life, I had one of those lame "I wish I were a carefree animal" thoughts. _Ugh... geez, is this what evil science class dread does to you?_

"Ahh, science," I heard Sophie squeal from behind me. Her class had probably just gotten out. I slowed down to allow her to catch up. "My favorite subject! We get to present our ideas today. Kikyou and I have come up with the greatest experiment."

"Way to rub it in," I muttered.

"Ah…" Sophie said, blinking. "Sorry. You're stuck with him, right? What kind of experiment are you doing?"

"I came up with it myself," I explained. "It's about name brands and store brands. We're gonna survey people to see which they like better and then test them."

"Oh, that's pretty cool," Sophie said brightly. She walked along the dirty white pavement, skimming her fingers over the railing (ouch, splinters!) and making sure not to step on any cracks. Once again I was reminded of Rin.

"Well?"

"Well what?" she asked, halting to a stop as she looked at me, probably so she wouldn't carelessly step on any cracks.

"Well, come on, what's your and Kikyou's project on? I'm curious!"

"Oh!" she laughed. "I'm not telling you until class starts!"

"Sophie!" I whined. "That's not fair, I told you!"

She flashed a particularly wicked grin. "Yes, but I never said I'd tell you about mine! It's not my fault you're willing to give away all of your secrets! Aeheeeheahahaha…_ha_..!" She coughed from the strain on that last "ha". "Well, that was my try at an evil laugh."

I laughed and started walking. "C'mon, don't want to be _too_ late… Sango skipped science yesterday and got a Saturday detention."

"Oh, god," Sophie groaned, looking down again as she started walking. "How many detentions has she had, five?"

"Er…it's been nine, actually."

She laughed and made a sort of leaping skip across a big group of cracks that came together in the middle, almost like veins connected to a heart.

I picked up the pace a bit. I had no intention of joining Sango on her Saturday detention. I frowned as I saw both Kikyou and Inuyasha standing by the door looking quite unpleasant. Inuyasha was the first to notice us, probably because of his scent. "Where the hell have you been, wench? Sato won't let us go to class without our partners!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that you couldn't get into the one class you decided not to skip," I scoffed. It was almost true. Inuyasha and his buddies Naraku and Miroku skipped so much it was a wonder they had passed middle school.

Sophie smiled apologetically at Kikyou, who simply smiled back and led the way into the classroom. I walked in after them with Inuyasha grudgingly following. He was probably mad that I was right about his skipping issue.

"Oh, good, you're here. Sophie Brown and Kikyou Mukashi will go second to last, and Kagome Higurashi and Inuyasha Hidaka will be last," Mrs. Sato said shortly.

The four of us groaned simultaneously and trudged to the back of the line that had formed. Inuyasha tried to get in line before Kikyou and Sophie but I yanked him back by the shoulder, scowling.

He turned around to me and glared. "What the fuck was that for, whose side are you on, anyhow?"

"Theirs," I answered simply. "Just because you're my partner doesn't mean I have to like you!"

"Good, because I despise _you_!" he said huffily, turning around to face the line. I stuck my tongue out at him behind his back.

It seemed like an eternity waiting. The projects went from boring to insane. Kaia and Mitsu were doing a project on which plant grew best in the dark… Fuuta and Ren wanted to see if it'd take longer for a bagel or a piece of white bread to grow mold… Tayama and Jena wanted to see how many marshmallows each person could stuff inside their mouths, and see if that number decreased the next day.

I sighed and leaned into the wall as we were slowly shuffled forward. Inuyasha was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. The rest of the class looked half asleep, if not napping already. The classroom was incredibly small, so the feeling of everyone packed tightly together and sleeping lazily made it feel even more cramped.

I allowed my thoughts to drift off once again. Ah, I couldn't wait until lunch… I could finally see Sesshomaru again. He was a year older, so he had lunch at the same time we did. Maybe he'd strike up a conversation today… maybe he liked me nearly half as much as I liked him.

There was a ruffling sound of papers as the group before Kikyou and Sophie went. The group consisted of two huge nerds that seemed to have decided that the project would consist of their life's work of theories - basically they were going to test everything and anything they could think of involving magnifying glasses and ants.

"Thank you, now Mukashi and Brown."

It was time for Kikyou and Sophie to present. Kikyou whipped out a huge poster board and Sophie grabbed a yard stick to use as a pointer. Sophie cleared her throat and began. "Kikyou and I have always wondered the same thing - how many things someone lies about in a day. It'd be really difficult to actually do _that_, so instead we've come up with this!" She nodded at Kikyou.

Kikyou nodded in return and finished off. "We're going to ask people a bunch of different questions, like "Have you had a Saturday detention?" or "Do you think that the crap at the food stand is outrageously priced?". And then that's where our super awesome espionage skills come in! We'll question friends and teachers, and follow them around campus to see if they live up to their word! If we see them at Saturday detention or hear them complaining about the prices, we'll know they've been lying!"

"Our estimate is that a person will lie about at least 2 things we question them on," Sophie explained, pointing to a chart with various stick figures, names, questions, and numbers. "That is what we have concluded so far by spying on our own families."

"Thank you very much," Sophie and Kikyou said in unison, grabbing hands and bowing.

There was a round of very unenthusiastic clapping. Who wants to be spied on all day, after all?

"Is that even scientific in the least?" I muttered.

"Maybe a bit more than the marshmallow theory," Inuyasha mumbled in reply.

"Very nice, yes, now Higurashi and Hidaka," said Mrs. Sato in the most uninterested voice she could manage.

"Um…" I gave a nervous glance to Inuyasha, almost expecting him to whip out a poster board like Kikyou had. He shrugged. I sighed and said, "Our project is to survey people and see which they like better: name brands or store brands. Then we're going to blindfold them and test them." I nodded and quickly walked back to my seat just in time for the bell to ring.

"Well, good, we got through these miserable things today," Mrs. Sato announced. "Tomorrow we'll read the next chapter of the textbook."

"Goodie!" Kikyou grunted sarcastically. Sophie the science-lover laughed.

I glanced over at Inuyasha. "Don't forget to start working on the next part."

The "next part" was thinking of the intervals. The next time we met, which would be at my house in another week, we would compare our ideas and see which to pick and choose.

"Will you leave me the hell alone? I'm not a moron, I know."

"Well fine! Don't come crying to me when you forget and fail!" I hissed, grabbing my backpack and storming out.

Woah, what was THAT all about?

---

_**-Lunch interlude :D-**_

"So Sango, why is he sitting with us again?" I sighed, looking around to see if I could spot Sesshomaru.

Sango sighed for the umpteenth time and turned to looked at Miroku, who was lying lazily underneath the tree, eating his sandwich with a look of pure bliss spread across his face.

"Because I slapped him in class again, and the teacher decided that we were in Kindergarten and said we have to sit together for lunch," Sango groaned.

"And tell me why I have to suffer along with you?" I asked pleasantly.

"Because you're nice like that, and if you didn't suffer along with me voluntarily I'd have to handcuff you," Sango replied simply.

Miroku smirked and snickered.

"Oh, shut up with your perverted thoughts!" Sango snapped, smacking him in the head with her lunch bag, which was still pretty heavy with a container of Pringles and a can of energy drink.

Miroku shrugged lightly, rubbing the spot on his head where he was hit. "Sango, Sango, so touchy…" He sat up and stared at me.

I blinked. "What?"

"Forgive my staring, Kagome, I can't help it - you're just so beautiful."

"…Uh… thanks?" I said, not showing quite how flattered I was.

"Kagome, do you realize how many times he's told that to all of the girls in history class?" Sango asked rhetorically, rolling her eyes.

History was the class Sango had with Miroku, who sat in back of her and managed to grope her through the desk. She was constantly "accidentally" slapping Miroku as she passed back papers, or dropping things on his head.

Miroku ignored Sango and took my hands in his. "Kagome… this, I do not ask all other girls. Will you please bear me a child?"

"WHAT?"

"What the hell do you mean you don't ask that to every other girl you meet? You just asked me twice today!" _Slap._

"I'm 15, you pervert; I'm too young to 'bear you a child'!" _Slap._ "…Not that I would, er, do that even if I was older than 15!"

"Yeah!"

"It's just wonderful being touched by you, Sango …" Miroku sighed.

"Shut up!"

The history teacher walked over, frowning. "Sango, I see you are still not able to get along with Mr. Houshi here. You will have to eat lunch with him for the rest of the week now."

Sango blinked at him with wide eyes. He smiled sadistically and turned around to walk back to the table where the rest of the teachers were.

"Wha…grah… goddammit!"

The worst part of all was that I couldn't find Sesshomaru!

---

Sango sighed.

"Sango…"

Sango sighed again.

"It's not so bad," I insisted.

"Yes it isss," Sango whined. "Lunch is my favorite period and it's ruined because of that… creature!"

I decided not to mention that she seemed like she was enjoying his attention. "We can still talk."

"He'll probably interrupt with gross comments."

"Then whisper."

"Ugh, you're so calm! He's ruining your lunch too!"

"Well, not necessarily…" I said truthfully.

"Yes he is!" Sango said, sending me a sharp look.

"Alright, alright, yes he is."

We were leaving the campus. School had just ended, and I was sleeping over Sango's house tonight. As it turns out, she lived just two blocks away from my house.

We had just barely got past the picnic benches when we caught Kikyou, Evana, and Sophie linking arms and skipping down the road just a small distance ahead of us.

"Hey … doesn't Kikyou act a little different around Sophie and Evana? You know, like…a lot more happy-go-lucky and giggly?" I asked curiously.

She didn't answer.

"Sango?" I asked.

"I guess…" she answered sulkily.

I sighed. "What's up with you two? Do you have this weird unspoken grudge or what?"

Sango stopped suddenly. She gave a nod. "Yeah."

"What happened?" I asked, trying to not let it show how eager I was to know.

"Kikyou used to be my best friend," she explained. "We met in Kindergarten, and we were inseparable from then on. Whatever one did, the other did as well. We went on family vacations with each other all the time. We took all sorts of weird dance classes together.

"But then… we started middle school. Kikyou got this really weird attitude all of a sudden, when she starting dating that demon Naraku. She basically told me to go screw myself; that I was annoying and she didn't need me anymore. She broke up with Naraku eventually, and that's when Sophie, Evana, and Shippo came along. Shippo became the closest friend I had and Evana and Sophie became hers. Later we realized that Naraku had said nasty things about me to Kikyou and said I was always talking about her to my other friends.

"That's when Kikyou and I decided to make a truce. But it was never the same after that. She hasn't really changed much; I can tell that by the way she acts around them. But she still hates me, for whatever reason. Maybe she meant the part about me being annoying." Sango shrugged. "Either way, it's too late to go back and change history. It's just…not fair how I had no part in it. Naraku said those things and Kikyou believed them. I think… Kikyou can be too willing to put up barriers and believe that others are betraying her. That's exactly how she lost Inuyasha as well."

"That's…awful," I said quietly. I had missed that last sentence at the time; I was busy thinking about the friends I had left behind. I was so lucky compared to Sango! My friends were still there, still my _friends_. Sango had lost her very best friend.

Sango nodded, frowning.

"We should include Shippo more," I said suddenly. "You know? We don't want him to feel left out or rejected like that."

Sango nodded. "You're probably right. You want to invite him over?"

I laughed. "You want to invite Shippo over for a sleepover?"

"Well, he doesn't have to stay! He can leave later," Sango replied, rolling her eyes.

"Ok! Come on, let's go!" I took off running blindly down to the street.

"Kagome, CAR!" Sango shrieked, running after me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

I groaned as I was flung back onto the pavement. "… Thanks."

"C'mon dimwit, we're off to buy energy drink and silly string!"


	5. Party of the Red Bull

**The Party of the Red Bull**

**Candy Coated Chocolates**

**Froggeh12**

**A/N: Note **I've redone this chapter… very important things were cut out of the end, so I'd recommend everyone who's already read it to go back and read it again. I figured that I was making the chapter a little too weird, and rushing things too fast, so I edited it, and added some more background on the "zomg demons are awesome" issue. Sorry to be a pain and make anyone who's read it read it again, but… a writer's gotta do what a writer's gotta do! I also wanted to get the next chapter up at the same time as it to not seem like I was just trying to bump my story, but I really wanted to get this out because I hadn't updated in so long. New update **definitely** before Thanksgiving (November 23rd for you non-Americans)!****

I try to make the fanfic as Japanese as I can (it's annoying when the story takes place in Japan but everything is randomly American), but I said that the students wear normal clothes to school, and in this chapter I'm going to use American movies. Sorry! If I used Japanese movies most of you wouldn't find any of it interesting/amusing, anyhow. Oh, and… this chapter is pretty much just a fun chapter, filled with mostly dialogue. I KNOW it's a weird chapter, that would be the entire POINT. XD;

One last friendly reminder… Review! Reviews make me happy! Thank you to everyone who has. :D

---

"Ok, so far we have got…" I began.

"Silly string," Sango said, picking up three of the twelve six-packs of silly string and then tossing them back in the cart. "Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Red Bull, and Monster. Three packs of tortilla chips and cheese dip. A huge pack of balloons and a helium tank."

"You do realize that there are only going to be three people there, right?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep."

"Oh, well… ok then."

"Nothing else?" Sango asked, staring into the cart and frowning a bit. "It's a little empty."

"How about we get some horror movies?" Shippo suggested, glancing at the rack of movies on the left wall. He had joined up with us shortly after Sango had called and suggested that he come shopping with us before the "party…ish… thing".

"Ooh… like, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre!" Sango squealed, clasping her hands together with an unmistakable look of delight on her face.

Shippo pulled a face and I gave a sort of squeamish look and I wondered for a second whether Sango was _very_ sadistic. "I couldn't look at a chainsaw for weeks after that… or masks, for that matter… or human body parts…" I shuddered.

"How about The Village?" Shippo suggested.

"No!" Sango and I said in unison.

"That wasn't even scary," I said irritably.

"Well then, what do you think, Kagome?" Shippo asked in a tone that hinted at annoyance.

I tapped my chin for a few moments. "Mm… It? Nah… needs a little something more…"

"Such as?" Sango asked, discreetly dropping the movies It and Texas Chainsaw Massacre into the cart. She faked innocence and turned

"I don't know. The Exorcist?"

"I think The Village was scarier than The Exorcist," Shippo said indignantly.

"Yeah, sure," Sango replied mildly. She grabbed Scream and threw it into the basket.

"I Know What You Did Last Summer!"

"God no!" Sango and I exclaimed.

"You just can't handle a movie that great," Shippo snorted.

"That's like saying let's go watch The Butterfly Effect or something," Sango said, rolling her eyes.

"The Butterfly Effect was a good movie!" I insisted, with Shippo nodding fervently at my side.

"Ok, look," Sango sighed. "Let's just decide on one movie. Alright?"

"Even though you seem to of already picked out a few for us," I pointed out. "Haven't you, Sango?"

Sango shifted slightly at her place in front of the cart. Oh yes, I had noticed. "Maybe."

"Ring," Shippo said suddenly.

"Ring what?" I asked, frowning.

"THE Ring!"

"_What_ ring?" I demanded.

"The Ring! The movie! The Ring! With the actress who kills the people that watch her sex tape."

"Oh, that Ring! Wait… Shippo…"

"No, really, it's a good movie!"

"But the sex tape bit, that's…"

"I know it sounds funny, but it's actually really scary! Just give it a chance!"

Sango turned to Shippo with a sort of twisted Mr. Potato Head expression on her face, a sign that she was trying way too hard to control her laughter. "We'll…ehe… try it…" She snorted loudly and pulled The Ring off the shelf.

"Time to… pay," I said, coughing as a disguise for the laughing attack that was threatening to burst out.

Sango inhaled a shuddering breath and pushed the cart briskly over to the nearest cash register. Shippo simply looked bewildered.

---

"Tada!" Sango said for dramatic effect, twisting the handle on the front door and letting herself in. She spun her way down the main hall and then took a left.

Shippo and I followed. The room she had gone in was her kitchen. She glanced over at Shippo and I with an evil sort of grin. "What first?"

"Sangooo!" a little girl's voice shrieked, interrupting us before we had the time to reply.

I turned to the kitchen entryway. A small girl was toddling her way over to Sango. She had orange-colored eyes and short, thick, frizzy ash blonde hair pulled into two short pigtails. She had a small white teddy bear clutched tightly in her right hand. I noticed also that her ears were a bit pointed, like Shippo's, and a very small almost catlike nose.

"Kirara!" Sango squealed, picking the girl up and spinning her around. "Were you good for Kohaku?"

"No," Kirara replied cheerfully, giving a small giggle as a disgruntled-looking boy made his way into the room.

"At least she's honest," the boy said, smiling a bit. It seemed almost as though he was too fond of the little girl to be angry at her.

"Oh, sorry," Sango said quickly to me, noting my politely confused look. "This is my little sister, Kirara… and my brother Kohaku. He's in eighth grade this year… Kirara's still just in preschool. You guys, this is Kagome."

"I'm a big girl like Sangooo!" Kirara insisted, resting her head on Sango's chest.

The boy gave a smile. "Hey, I'm Kohaku." I shook his hand and took in his looks. He had short brown hair and a few light freckles across his face.

He didn't bear a fantastic resemblance to Sango, either, but he looked a lot more like her than Kirara did.

"Kohaku has to pick up Kirara from the preschool and watch over her for an hour every day, since we're in school for an hour longer than they are," Sango explained.

"Two hours today," Kohaku muttered in an almost-irritable voice.

"Aww, that's not a bad thing at all," Sango cooed, squeezing her sister and giving her a kiss on the head. "Go watch Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty now, ok Kiri?"

"Mmmk Sangooo!" Kirara squealed, running back into the hall, presumably to wherever she liked to watch her movies.

Kohaku gave Kirara a weary glance as she ran clumsily out of the room. "I don't trust her," he sighed to himself and followed his younger sister.

Sango gave a smile and turned back to us. "Ok, so… I'll say it again, now what?"

"Silly string wars?" I suggested.

Sango and Shippo both let out loud gasps. "No!"

"No way!"

"That's… that's like, unholy!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, taken aback. That was such a completely unexpected reaction.

"You can't just go and say, Oh, I'm Kagome, I'm going to have a silly string war with Sango and Shippo!" Shippo insisted. "You have to be like… oh, look, a can of silly string. And you grab it and go SHOOOM and Sango and I are all like oohk, it's on bizatch!"

I blinked several times, trying to decide whether that was a different language or not.

"Exactly!" Sango agreed dramatically, as though that had made perfect sense.

"WHAT?" I cried, feeling annoyed and maybe a little dumb.

"Basically, it has to be unexpected. Spontaneous. Adventurous. Carnivorous," Shippo explained.

"As in cannibalism or something?"

"Oh, Kagome, you read too much into things! Let's have nachos!" Sango squealed.

For the first time I noticed a double-serving can of energy drink in Sango's hand, and one in each of Shippo's.

"You guys are cheaters!" I whined, grabbing an energy drink myself. I downed half of it in one gulp.

"Woah, dude!" Shippo exclaimed, taking a huge swig himself - first drinking from the one in his left hand, and then in his right. He started coughing and gave a distinct shiver.

"Haha! Too much for little Shippo!" Sango giggled. "Let's have pizza now!"

"I'll call for pizza," I offered. I was a little more sane than they were as it stood.

"No, I want to," Sango insisted. "Only let's prank call that bastard Miroku and order pizza there, even if it won't really be ordering pizza!"

"Oh, you're so in love!" I giggled. Oh, great, it was getting to me, too.

"I have his phone number!" Shippo chirped.

"So do I!" Sango replied.

"Why do you guys have his phone number?" I snorted.

"Kanna," Shippo responded at the same time Sango said "Shut up."

"Ok, ok, I'll call," Sango said, pulling out her cell phone. "Name dial," she said to the phone. She punched a button to put it on a speaker.

"Say a name," the phone answered.

"Perv."

"Perv… calling."

"You have him as perv?" I asked, amused.

Sango shrugged and waited for Miroku to answer.

_Ring…_

_Ring…_

_Ri-_

"Hello?" a fairly masculine voice answered.

"Hello, Pizzeria Funstop?" Sango asked in a very deep voice. "I'd like…anchovies…"

"What?"

"Anchovies, you moron!" Sango shrieked and burst into laughter. "Not even on a pizza, just anchovies!"

"…Sango, are you high?"

"Energy drink!" Sango whined. "And how do you know it's me, anyhow?"

"This new technological advance called caller ID," Miroku responded mildly.

"Oh, dammit!" Sango snapped.

"HI Miroku!" I shrieked suddenly. I couldn't help it, I wanted in on the fun. "Shippo's here too!"

"Oh, um… hello Kagome and Shippo."

"We're having an uber awesome party ish thing and you are not invited!" Sango said loudly into the phone. "You can't come!"

"Oh good, I'll be over soon! Bye everyone!" Miroku said giddily.

"No, you bastard, I said you WEREN'T!" Sango snapped. She frowned at a click and the dial tone that followed. "Damn."

"It'll be more fun!" I insisted, taking another sip of energy drink.

"The more the merrier!" Shippo yelled.

"The more the merrier!" I repeated. I frowned for a moment before snapping to Sango, "I want pizza."

"Patience is a virtue, Kagome." She had been flipping through the phonebook the entire time. After a moment she found the number for the actual Pizzeria Funstop and dialed. Sango put the phone on speaker again, and the three of us listened as it dialed.

"Hello, Pizzeria Funstop, where we make stopping for pizza fun. How can I help you?" a teenage female's voice answered.

"Hi, I'm Shippo!" Shippo said loudly before Sango could get a word in. "What's your name?"

"Ana," the girl replied irritably. "Are you going to order or not, kid?"

"I'm not a kid!" Shippo growled.

"Ok, I got it…" Sango said. "Ok, Ana, I want… anchovies."

"Anchovies? On what size pizza?" Ana asked, sounding a bit relieved that they were finally ordering.

"No pizza, just anchovies."

"You'll have to go to the supermarket for that, hun," Ana snapped.

"Oh," Sango replied blankly.

"I'll try this again. What kind of pizza do you want, and what size?"

_This was is my chance! _I thought to myself excitedly_. Shippo said that he wanted spontaneous… well this would be, wouldn't?_

I got down on my knees and crawled my way over to the counter where the shopping bags still were. I did a quick check on Sango, who was arguing with Ana over exactly what pepperoni was made of. "Almost there…" I told myself, inching along slowly.

"Hold it right there," a male voice said from behind me. I turned around slowly and found myself face-to-face with a can of silly string.

"Hyah!" I yelled, kicking the can away and dashing over to counter. I grabbed a can of pink silly string and aimed it at Shippo. "You can't defeat me that easily!"

"So, it seems as though great minds really do think alike," Shippo said, pointing his can of yellow silly string at me. "Unfortunately, there is only room for one great mind in the war. And I can assure you that - gah!"

I pushed down on the top of the silly string can, releasing a huge spray of pink sticky string at Shippo. "Hah!" I laughed to myself easily. I ducked down behind the counter.

"No, no, I wanted three large pizzas, one with anchovies, one with 5/8 pepperoni and 1/8 organic pepperoni… there is _too_ such thing as organic pepperoni!" Sango was arguing over the phone. "No… yes… no, no! Na na na la la la la la can't hear you!"

Shippo flew over the counter and over to my side. By doing this, he knocked all of the brown plastic bags onto the floor. The particularly heavy one with all of the cans of silly string landed on Sango. She turned around fiercely to face us. "Oh, it's so on."

Somewhere over at the local Pizzeria Funstop, Ana was putting in the order for a 5/8 pepperoni pizza with 1/8 organic pepperoni, a pizza with double cheese and anchovies, and an M&Ms pizza "like Princess Diaries".

---

**Inuyasha POV**

Inuyasha drove along the main rode, feeling more than just a little irritated. Why was it him who had to deliver the "almost definitely" prank call order?

That damn Ana, she really needed to be fired.

He glanced down at the address. Ok, this was in the Yume Hoshi neighborhood, which was where a lot of his schoolmates lived. He hoped like hell it wasn't one of them - he wasn't really in the mood to deal with someone like Naraku, or some weird human girl. At least after this he could just go home.

He made a right into the neighborhood, not bothering to glance at street signs. He had been here many, many times since he had taken an after school job at Pizzeria Funstop. It had been his parents' idea - he didn't really need the money. He suspected it was to get him closer to his brother, who had worked there for three years now, though his parents insisted it was all to do with "responsibility".

Inuyasha turned at the third street on the left. Now he had to actually start paying attention. He was looking for 6510. He passed a 6512 on the left and a 6600 on the right. "Left it is…" he muttered to himself, looking over at the left houses. 6512… 6510… there it was.

"Here we go," Inuyasha said, pulling into the driveway. He turned the key in the ignition and pulled it out. He got out of the front seat, grabbed the disgusting-smelling pizzas in the backseat, and jogged up to the front door of the house. Before his finger was even within a foot of the doorbell, a girl opened the door. A skinny, black-haired, brown-eyed schoolgirl with sticky string coating her clothes and hair.

"Oh, great, it's Inuyasha!" Kagome squealed in a mock-happy voice. "Come to humiliate me even more, have you?"

Inuyasha frowned. "Er… no. I'm just here to deliver your pizzas." He snorted. "If it wasn't some stupid prank call."

"Of course not!" Sango said, going up to the doorway and making room for herself. Or in another words, shoving Kagome out of the way. Kagome regained her composure and stalked away angrily.

"Right," Inuyasha muttered.

Sango pulled a few bills and handed over 10,000 yen. "Here you go!"

Inuyasha handed her the pizzas and widened his eyes as he counted the bills. "You know I only need about half of this, right?"

"Yep!" Sango laughed. "You just get an extra-big tip."

"…Really?" Inuyasha asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion and glancing back down at the bills.

"No, of course not, moron," Sango snorted, grabbing a few of the bills back, leaving Inuyasha with no tip to speak of, and in turn taking the pizzas. "No one makes an idiot out of Kagome like you did and gets away with it."

Inuyasha snorted and turned back to his Pizzamobile. "Whatever."

---

**Back to Kagome's POV**

I was so irritated. Although Inuyasha had at least denied the disgusting rumors that we had been together, it had been rather rudely. Not to mention the fact that he had in turn broken his girlfriend's heart - one he had tried years to get! No, kids like Inuyasha confused me more than anything. Why would he risk something as precious as a relationship to make cocky comments?

"The anchovies pizza is actually pretty cool," Shippo said from across the table.

"Heck yes!" Sango yelled, pumping her fist into the air and taking an over exaggerated bite out of her slice.

"Woo!" Miroku screamed, taking a bite of his M&Ms pizza. He had had a few servings of energy drink himself.

"Yeah!" Shippo screeched.

The three of them turned to me with anticipation.

"…What?"

"Oh c'mon Kagome, the energy drink can't of worn out yet!" Miroku insisted, frowning.

I gave a shrug. "Whatever."

Sango frowned. "Are you ok, Kagome? Did Inuyasha say anything else while I wasn't there?"

I shook my head. "They're just so weird… like a completely different species."

"Erm… well," Shippo corrected. "Technically demons are an entirely different species."

"Shippo, you know what I meant," I said irritably. "Besides, they're not just demons." I sent a meaningful glance Miroku's way.

Miroku sighed. "Oh, yes, and we all knew it would come to this." He put down his slice of pizza and wiped his mouth on a napkin in a dainty, almost ladylike way.

When he was finished, he looked directly at me. "Do you know what it was like here back in fifth grade, Kagome?" His voice was surprisingly pleasant and calming.

"I can't say I do, Miroku," I replied in a cheerful voice, although one not quite as charming as Miroku's. _He has a gift! _I thought bitterly.

"Well, back in fifth grade, demons started rising to political power around here, and since we live in the middle of no where, it was a big deal. They became like superheroes to humans. The demons in the class had no idea what was happening when suddenly everyone liked them. It had never happened before. They had always been these monsters that tore everyone to shreds until then. This was their big break; they could finally be like normal kids. They didn't have to be called murderers and get shoved around in the halls anymore by a lesser race - don't you understand?"

"No," Sango snapped irritably, and was immediately "shh"ed by Kagome.

Miroku took that as a sign to continue. "As we all know, the popular kids usually get to the top by having good looks and sense of humor that everyone else likes. Well, the current popular kids uncharacteristically decided to turn their positions over to the demons. As I'm sure you've heard before… absolute power corrupts absolutely." He had a wise look in his eyes as he said this. "The demons became just like the popular kids, unless they refused the position as Sesshomaru did. Inuyasha did at first, believe it or not, but was eventually pressured into it. I have been Inuyasha's best friend ever since Kindergarten and I had no intention of ending our friendship then, nor will I ever."

Kagome took a moment to soak up this information like a sponge with too many holes. It was getting harder and harder to hear everyone's side on this. Everyone seemed to have their own opinion on everything… but she did have to admit, Miroku's explanation made perfect sense. Sango, who had gone back to her energy drink, simply chugged down another energy drink like she would with a beer after a hard day.

"Let's get this party going for REAL," she giggled suddenly, standing up and running around her kitchen counter.

"But wait!" Kagome called irritably, waving around her can of energy drink. "I thought we were having a serious discussion here!"

"Not anymore!" Miroku whooped wildly, doing a cartwheel from the kitchen into the hall. "To the living room!" He continued doing cartwheels until he reached a big room at the end of the hall.

"Praise Red Bull!" Shippo yelled as he and Sango raced to the living room, Sango with a few DVDs in her arms.

I rolled my eyes. "You're all such kids!" Then I let out an excited shriek and did a few cartwheels of my own to the living room.

I took a seat on the white loveseat. The living room was big and arranged in such a way that everything was in a small semi-circle and had a nice view of the high definition plasma flat screen wall television. I had never envied Sango quite so much. Miroku sprawled across the couch lazily, letting his feet hang over the satin cushions. Sango and Shippo sat on the ground in front of the smear-free glass coffee table, as close to the television as they could get without wincing.

"Ok, The Ring, right?" Sango asked. She didn't wait for a reply; she just pushed the DVD in and started it.

"Urgh… hate this part," I muttered, burying my head into my hands. "Tell me when it's over!" Sango let out a loud snort and I lifted my head up just enough to scowl at her.

At the video tape part, Shippo led out an indignant "What's up with that?". Sango and I started laughing. Shippo, extremely flustered, threw his bowl of popcorn at Miroku instead of choosing between Sango and I. Miroku, who had been squealing like a school girl over the scary parts, let out a high-pitched scream and fell over the arm of the couch.

It was the first night that I had managed to completely forget that I had ever had friends before them.


	6. Double Dating

**Candy Coated Chocolates**

**Double Dating**

**Froggeh12**

**A/N:** I know that writers on usually write to reviewers in their ending author notes, but I don't feel like it, so deal with it. xP

**To Jennifer:** Yes, I did revise the last chapter a few times, as I mentioned in the last author's note. I changed it because things seemed to be happening too quickly. I didn't want Inuyasha to be there because it seemed like I was trying to just sort of make excuses for him to enter the story, and Kagome was still really upset and confused over what had taken place at school. There will be a lot more Inuyasha and Sesshomaru from this chapter on, I promise. XD I also added in some information about demons and humans in the town they live in. I'm sorry you liked the first version best, but I did have my reasons. You'll like this chapter, then. Thank you for reading!

**I'll take this opportunity to add something else:** Kagome used to go to a nice public school and lived in a small house in Tokyo, and now she lives in a big house in the middle of no where in a private school she hates. If you want more information on that, I'd recommend you read my profile, underneath the Candy Coated Chocolates section. **Also, I've made a small change to chapter one** - I forgot to completely explain the reason why Kagome moved. Kagome, at first, assumes that they are moving because things are cheaper there - when what Kagome's mother actually meant by "bigger and better" opportunities was the chance to have a bigger house in a supposedly nicer area. She did it for her kids and for her father, assuming that things would be very safe and calm there, with a "fantastic" system of private schools. I also explain why normal clothes can be worn as opposed to a uniform. XD

**To Ro0tin4Kagome:** I keep up with the latest Inuyasha manga, so yes, I did read it! D In response to your second review… XDD I was thinking about celebrities and their sex tapes when I wrote that last chapter, and I thought about how The Ring was about a tape and a bitter girl… so I put the two ideas together. XD

Thank you so much to everyone who reads this story, and every other story I have. I honestly appreciate every single review, alert, and favorite I get. And for those of you who read and don't make yourself known, I love you guys too! XD

---

It was Inuyasha's turn to come over.

I had unfortunately decided that it was better to meet once a week, rather than twice a month, and this time he was to come over my house. I was dreading every moment of it. We hadn't spoken or made eye contact since the incident with Kanna. How was he going to react? Was he going to yell at me? Call me a bitch? Act like a jerk the whole time by making tiny, almost unnoticeable jabs at me?

Surprisingly, he did none of those things. When I greeted him at the door, he simply walked in without a word. I led him to my room silently. _It would be fantastic if we could do this whole thing in silence_, I thought.

Once we sat down, Inuyasha on the floor and me at my computer chair, I immediately started to talk. It was making me too uncomfortable. "So, this time we're supposed to talk about hypothesis, independent variables, and the control… And, you know, basically we're going to talk about how we'll go about this, how many people we'll use… stuff like that."

When Inuyasha said nothing, I continued, "A control is what is kept the same in the experiment… the independent variable is what changes… and the hypothesis has to be in the "if" and "then" format."

I thought I might've punched him when he remained silent for an entire minute… that is, if he hadn't started talking just as I was balling up my fists.

"If we offer both brand name and store brand versions of food items to classmates, without telling them what it is, then the classmates will like the brand names more." He turned to look at me. "Would you agree?"

I nodded slowly, secretly pleased with his response. "I agree with your hypothesis… however, I think we need a better way to word it." I chewed on the bottom of my lip for a moment, thinking as Inuyasha waited with a very expressionless expression. "If we offer unlabeled samples of both brand name and store brand versions of food to classmates, then our classmates will prefer the name brand samples."

"That's fine," Inuyasha said dully, spreading out across the lavender colored carpet and resting his head against my desk drawers. Fantastic, he was back to being irritable.

"Now, the controls would be the type of bowls, the expiration dates, the type of utensils they use - just in case, um… can you think of anything else?"

"They all have to be the same name brands and the same correlating store brands."

"True." I nodded approvingly, writing everything down. "The independent variables are…"

"The people eating the food samples," Inuyasha said simply, "And the store brands and name brands themselves."

"Isn't there supposed to be just one independent variable?" I asked, peering over my notepad and frowning.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Who cares? Just write it down!"

I scowled but scribbled the rest of the information down. I blinked and looked up. "Well, now what?"

"We should figure out which brands and which store brands we're going to use. I say one of them ought to be… Rice Krispies versus crispy rice cereal."

I smiled and nodded, jotting it down quickly. "Double Bubble versus bubble gum."

"Lays chips versus potato chips," he added.

"M&Ms and candy coated chocolates." We looked at each other in frowned in curiosity. We had just said the same thing at the same exact time.

I laughed… softly, at first. To this day I don't know where it came from. I laughed until Inuyasha joined. We laughed and laughed until finally I was on the floor with him, in a fit of hysterical giggles. Then suddenly I was serious. I wanted an explanation.

"What happened with Kanna, Inuyasha? Didn't you love her?"

Inuyasha scowled and turned to his side. "Keh. There is no love in high school, Kagome. Even someone as naïve as you must know that."

"Well, fine," I snapped. "Didn't you like-like her then?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Yeah," he said. "But those girls come and go all the time."

"Is it always because of you?"

That's when Inuyasha got defensive. He stood up and sat in my computer chair. He spun the other away, crossing his arms and giving off an obvious I-am-moody aura.

"Inuyasha!" I said irritably, smacking him in the head with my thick notepad. "Answer me!"

"You don't know how it is," he snapped, grabbing the notepad and throwing it down on the bed.

"I don't know how what is?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing _what_!?"

"Nothing, leave me alone!" Inuyasha snarled, in a strangely two-year-old-ish sort of way.

I sighed, decided not to press the issue any further, and sat down on the edge of my bed. "Do you want to watch TV until your brother comes to pick you up?"

Inuyasha seemed to brighten at the idea. "Alright. But no wussy chick flicks like last time."

"Hey, you're the one who had it on that particular channel." I smirked.

"It was KANNA!"

"Yes, Inuyashina, but let's watch TV!"

---

We watched In Her Shoes… or, rather, I watched In Her Shoes. Inuyasha fell asleep halfway through.

As creepy as this sounds, I watched him sleep for a while. It was for perfectly innocent reasons, I assure you. I watched as he slowly inhaled and exhaled, watched as his chest rose and fell, just like all humans… and er, hanyous… and demons. It amazed me, though, for some odd reason. We're all so similar, and yet… we let stupid things like power get in the way of things. Inuyasha could've enjoyed his relationship with Kanna, and he could've appreciated me, his project partner. He could've got to know the friends that I loved, rather than sticking to his demon friends and ones that created the monster in the first place.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't think that there would ever be a society where everyone held hands and sang around a campfire, and I still don't. What about a society, though, where you didn't have to be mean and vicious to everyone around you, everyone who was lower than you? What about -

I was in the middle of a deep, thoughtful mind-rant when there was a very brisk sort of knock at the door. I sighed irritably and sat up. I swung my legs over to the edge of the bed and slid off. There was another knock, this time it sounded a little annoyed. "Coming!" I called loudly, picking up the pace a bit. "Hang on, Mom!"

When I swung open the door, I came face-to-face with Sesshomaru. Well, not face-to-face, more like face-to-fluffy-thing, but you get the drift. The point is, I was there in the same room as Sesshomaru, not sobbing over a chick flick or sitting across from his parents. "Oh, Sesshomaru!" I said pleasantly, in a tone of forced nonchalance. "What are you doing here?"

"Erm…" He smirked slightly. "Picking up my brother."

Oh my GOD!! I had actually just asked that. I had, really, really, just asked Sesshomaru what he was doing at my house, at the exact time that Inuyasha said he would be there. He probably thought I thought he was stalking me! Which, I don't know, I might've sort of fantasized about, but still!

"Oh, right! Well… you see, he's asleep. Cried his poor puppy eyes out over In Her Shoes. Fantastic movie!" I grinned, hoping he wouldn't notice how insane I was.

"You like movies?" Sesshomaru asked very suddenly, and I was instantly jerked from my own little world and back into reality with Sesshomaru.

"Oh… yes," I replied cautiously, blinking in anxious confusion. Was this his weird way of asking me out?

"I see." That was all he said, or all he really had the chance too. Inuyasha had stalked up to the doorway, looking irritated.

"Let's go, Sesshomaru," he snapped, shoving his way past me.

I scowled at him. "Asshole…" I forgot the uber sensitive demon hearing, apparently, because Sesshomaru did that almost-smirk thing again and Inuyasha stormed off in a huff.

"I'll see you on Monday, Kagome," Sesshomaru said, following his fuming half-brother.

I smiled slightly, although I was extremely disappointed. I walked out into the hall for a moment before doing something… well… bizarre.

"Sesshomaru! Inuyasha! Um…" I looked around anxiously for a moment as Inuyasha and Sesshomaru waited at the landing, one of the brothers more impatient than the other. "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

It was different when Inuyasha's mom had asked me through Sesshomaru… but to ask them myself? To my great surprise, Sesshomaru nodded. Inuyasha looked thoroughly irritated but sighed in reluctant agreement.

"Great!" I said, unable to keep the relief out of my voice. "I'll go tell my mom!" I ran down the stairs, past the two demons, and into the kitchen. "Mom…?" I asked cautiously, watching as she sliced up some sort of strange, donut-shaped dark blue vegetable with gushy sun yellow insides. I cringed as she lifted some of the mush up and laid it down in the bottom of a pan.

Mom turned around with a smile on her face. "There's enough for Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, Kagome."

I frowned. "How did you know?"

She winked. "I just know."

I sighed and turn around, heading back to the stairs, which stood in the middle of the living room. "She said yes. That's alright with you guys, right?"

"He already called Mom," Inuyasha muttered with his arms cross, scowling over at Sesshomaru.

"Lighten up," said Sesshomaru-who-never-smiles. I smiled at him, and he smiled ever so slightly back at me. My pulse quickened within a millisecond, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Inuyasha roll his eyes.

"Ok, well, um… what do you guys want to do while we wait for dinner?"

"Dinner's done in two hours!" Mom chirped cheerfully from the kitchen. "Get out of my house!"

Inuyasha turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "Does your mother always kick you out of the house two hours before dinner?"

I blushed but otherwise ignored his comment. "Let's go to the arcade!"

Sesshomaru nodded in acceptance and Inuyasha muttered something under his breath, already heading out to Sesshomaru's car. I followed, and Sesshomaru followed after me. I made a move to sit in the backseat, but Sesshomaru shook his head. "Inuyasha. Get up."

Inuyasha, who was in the passenger seat, turned to his brother with an incredulous look. "WHAT?"

"You heard me. Kagome is our guest. Sit in the back now."

"Fuck you, pretty boy!" Inuyasha exploded. "If your girlfriend sitting in the front is that important to you, tie her to the windshield!"

"It's ok, Sesshomaru," I said quickly. "I'll just sit in the back. I don't care. My kid brother does the same thing." I smirked at Inuyasha.

Inuyasha ignored the jab and crossed his arms with a "Feh". Sesshomaru seemed to accept this and sat in the driver's seat. I sat behind Inuyasha the whole way, however, and by the time we got to the arcade, he had ten beautiful braids in his hair. Unfortunately, he felt them as he was getting out of the car and quickly undid them all. Bastard.

Sesshomaru didn't take us to the dinky one down the street as I had expected. He took us to the huge game place, with pool tables and shuffleboard. I squealed excitedly and ran full blast across the parking lot.

"Kagome, CAR!" a female voice screeched. A second later I felt myself being knocked to the side as someone jumped on top of me and knocked me out of the way. When I, or should I say we, landed, I found myself face-to-face with Sango.

"Sango!" I exclaimed, getting up and brushing myself off. She groaned in a mix of pain and exasperation.

"Kagome, what is your problem? That's the twelfth time I've saved you from being eaten by a mini-van!"

"It's the second," I corrected irritably. "There's a difference!"

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru both came over to me. To my great surprise, both had on looks of obvious concern. "Are you alright?" they asked in unison.

"I'm fine," I muttered, stretching my arms out and kicking my legs one at a time to make sure everything was functioning properly. I noticed Sango doing the same. "Thank you for saving me twice!"

Sango rolled her eyes. "No problem, Kagome." She turned towards us. "Are you guys coming or leaving?"

"We just got here," I explained. "Mom won't let me back in for another two hours."

"Ah," Sango replied with a confused expression. "And you guys are staying for dinner…?"

"Yes," the brothers replied in simultaneous monotone. Inuyasha's look of concern was still very evident, but Sesshomaru's had long faded. It figured; Sesshomaru didn't seem to be a very emotional person.

"I see." Sango smiled slightly. "I just got here, too! Why don't we go in together?" She quickly began moving towards the entrance.

"Wait, Sango!" I exclaimed. "Didn't you come here with someone?"

"Yes." She gave me a dirty look. "I came here with my so-called date."

I squealed. "Really?! Sango, who is it?" I ignored her obviously displeased look.

"Sango, darling, wait for me!" a distinctively charming voice called. I turned around to see Miroku running towards Sango. Sango sped up, pretending not to notice the boy who was apparently her date.

"Sango! Saaango!"

Sango finally stopped and turned around, just inches away from the door. "Come ON, Miroku!"

I laughed and ran to Sango, with Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Miroku following. I got there first with a huge grin on my face. "Sango dahling, would you mind terribly explaining why you're on a date with a guy you supposedly hate?"

Sango scowled. "I lost a bet. After you and Shippo left this morning, Miroku stayed. Don't get any ideas, Kagome, I see you smirking. Anyway, I bet that if we stood out in the front lawn, where a lot of girls walk by, he couldn't go ten minutes without hitting on them."

I was shocked. "He WON?"

"Yep," Sango groaned. "And now I have to date him."

By now, the three guys had caught up. I started laughing and laughing until I thought I was going to die from lack of air. Sango oh-so-kindly helped me regain sanity when she said, "So this is like a double date, right?"

Just as I opened my mouth to protest, Sesshomaru said, "Right."

Sango blinked in surprise. It was obvious she had planned on embarrassing me, not setting me up on a date. Miroku and Inuyasha looked equally shocked. I tried to play it cool, like we had been obviously going on a date before Sango said anything. The five of us shuffled from the slowly cooling weather into the warm arcade air, thick with pizza grease.

Sesshomaru made a grab for my hand, and I immediately accepted. As we laced our fingers I smiled. This didn't necessarily mean that Sesshomaru was my boyfriend, but hey, it was a date!

The five of us walked from game to game, wasting 5000 yen at a time on tokens that would turn into tickets, which would get us something worth 10 yen. We didn't care. No one was having a bad time. Sango and Miroku were getting along eerily well, and even the dateless Inuyasha, who I'm sure would normally be walking ten paces behind us, was laughing along with our jokes and playing the claw machines twenty times in a row while the rest of us tried to get stuffed animals for our dates.

I saw Miroku lightly touch Sango's hand. Sango blushed but accepted it. They didn't lace fingers, but it was a fantastic start. It was amazing that Miroku had managed to get Sango to even hold hands in the first place. I had better keep an eye on Miroku…

"Let's play some DDR!" I said suddenly. I was holding a very large pink dolphin, Sango was holding a giant sheepdog, and Inuyasha had at least 10 small turtles in a plastic bag. "Claw machines are fantastic…" Inuyasha murmured.

"Ooh! Awesome!" Sango squealed. She let go of Miroku's hand and grabbed mine instead. We ran to the nearby machine, hurriedly stuffing coins into the slots. Once it started, it asked us to chose a song and difficulty level. Sango hurriedly stepped on random parts of the machine, not paying attention to what she selected. "Ok, ready?"

I nodded and gently set my pink dolphin down on the ground beside me. Sango did the same, and immediately after the game had begun. I groaned upon seeing the insane twists and combinations presented on the screen. "Sango, you set it to the highest level!" I said irritably.

Sango didn't reply. Her feet were moving almost as much as her arms were. I gasped and immediately began my own footwork. I was faster than Sango, but she was more accurate. The steps quickly became agonizing, but I pressed on anyway. Suddenly Sango and I knew that this wasn't just a game. Whoever won would impress their date. I slowed down to Sango's speed to see if that would help my accuracy. It didn't. Sango skipped a step here and there to see if that would make her faster. It didn't. The minute seemed to last an hour. Inuyasha seemed to think so, too, because right after the song finished he exclaimed, "Two hours!"

"God, I know!" I groaned, wiping the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand and sighed upon seeing the score. Sango had won. She shrieked with happiness and ran to hug Miroku.

"No, no, I mean it's been two hours! Longer than two hours, actually… more like three," Inuyasha explained.

"WHAT!? Oh my god, Mom is going to kill me!" I pulled out my cell phone and immediately began hitting four buttons at once. I was about to hit send anyway but Sesshomaru gently placed his right hand on my disgustingly sweaty shoulder.

"Calm down, Kagome."

I breathed slowly. "Ok…" I sighed and hit "end" before dialing the proper number.

"Hello?" I heard Grandpa's voice answer.

"Grandpa!" I exclaimed. "I'm so sorry we're late. Is there any din-"

"Young lady, we have been waiting an HOUR for that pizza you were going to bring home!" Grandpa scolded over the phone. "You bring that pizza home this instant!"

Alright, Grandpa was officially senile. "Grandpa, hand the phone to Mom, please. You know, the woman with the short black hair and the-"

"I know who she is!" Grandpa retorted.

I waited a few moments before hearing a "hello?" from my mother. "Mom, what on Earth is Grandpa talking about?"

"The pizza, dear. Please bring back a pizza."

"Did you burn dinner or something?"

I could almost hear the mischievous grin in her voice. "What do you mean, Kagome? I was never preparing any dinner."

Lesson to be learned: Mothers really do know best. Just as we were heading out to the car after saying goodbye to a very happy Miroku and Sango, with Inuyasha carrying three pizza boxes, Sesshomaru leaned over and swiftly kissed me on the lips. Then we both got into his car as though nothing had happened.


	7. Better in Time

**Candy Coated Chocolates**

**Better In Time  
**

**Froggeh12**

**A/N: **Hey guys! I'm SO sorry I haven't updated in so long. I'd like to promise no more gaps like that, but I can't… what I CAN promise however is that I'm 99 sure I won't abandon this story, and I WILL let you know if I do decide to stop writing this. If you don't hear from me for a while, just assume it's a long, annoying break. Thanks so much for being patient. Enjoy the chapter! Nothing really big happens, and it's not that interesting, I know, but… xx; It was a necessary chapter.

Gah, you know what I realized, though? Japanese schools don't have the same breaks and re-entry times as American schools do. Whatever. D: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE anyway! Psh, see, the author is always right. ;D

Make sure to review!

---

Right after a dinner of greasy pizza and light chatter, as Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were leaving, Sesshomaru turned around and kissed me again. It was a lot more… well… active this time. After a few minutes of this, with Inuyasha waiting impatiently by the car, Sesshomaru asked me very bluntly to be his girlfriend. I squealed and hugged him and, quite obviously, said yes. It was a dream come true to someone like me. I usually only got the stalker-esque nerds. When I floated back to my room that night, I didn't think I would ever be happier than I was right at that moment.

I woke up the next morning with a fluttering feeling in my stomach. I was nervous. Being tired and groggy, I wasn't entirely sure as to what I was nervous _about_. I took a moment to think. I thought about the events of the previous night and… Sesshomaru was now my boyfriend! Oh my god! What was I going to wear? Was he going to expect me to tell other people? …Or did he expect me to keep it to myself? Would he think I was ashamed of him if I didn't come in bragging about it? Then I realized… I was nervous about seeing Sesshomaru for the first time after last night. I was nervous about how people would react, and how I would react once _they_ reacted!

As you might be able to tell by this rant, I had never had a boyfriend before. I had only kissed a boy once before Sesshomaru, and that was on a dare in eighth grade. So, naturally, I was scared to death.

As I was contemplating skipping school entirely and faking illness, my mother came in. "Kagome, honey, it's almost time to leave."

I turned to her, hoping I didn't look as lost as I felt. Turns out I did.

"Come here, baby."

I instinctively ran to my mother, who, being a mother, wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the head. "Don't be scared. Remember, he likes you for who you are. Don't act any differently, just hold your head high and be yourself."

"Thanks, Mom…"

So I took her advice. I dressed in a pretty medium-blue skirt and a white button down shirt, with black slip-ons and a very minimal amount of make up – same general look as every day. I brushed through my hair and looked in the mirror. I still looked like me. I gave the proud girl on the other side of the mirror a giant grin. Then both I and the girl in the mirror realized what time it was, and bolted away frantically, cursing everything in sight.

---

Naturally, I was late.

Naturally, the entire school knew that Sesshomaru and I were going out.

And naturally, I was on the shit list of every girl I came across.

Huh.

As I walked into English class, I was greeted by a loud round of wolf whistles and catcalls – a very animalistic class in every sense of the word. I smiled brightly at the class as if I hadn't just had a thick paper ball lobbed at my head, as if Mayu in the front row hadn't attempted to trip me. It was math class after dinner at Inuyasha's all over again, but this time everyone managed to say their comments perfectly fine from their seats. And this time… they actually had a reason to say something.

The comments varied. It went from "You fucking slut" to "How did YOU end up going out with Sesshomaru, the hottest demon in school? Don't you hate demons?"

AGAIN with the hating demons thing! They didn't seem to understand that I didn't hate demons. I've just never been able to stand people who abuse their power and those who stand by and allow the power to be abused; allow themselves to be walked all over so that maybe they can get a small taste of that power.

Sesshomaru didn't even seem too fond of his "power". Why would it amaze them so much that he wouldn't go out with someone like them? What was so bad about going out with someone who was different from him?

Well, as any high school movie will tell you, everything.

My next class was math, so at least I had my friends. I also had Inuyasha. That was something I had been waiting for, honestly. After yesterday… after we all had so much fun together… would he really join in on the taunting?

I sat in my usual spot next to Kikyou, feeling a bit safer, though not much. Sango came in a few seconds after I had taken my seat and immediately came over to my desk. She sat on her knees to get closer to my level and hugged me. "Are you ok? I haven't heard good things."

"I'm fine, Sango," I said with a smile, returning the hug. "They can say what they want. All I care about is what actually happened… I have my Sesshomaru. Go sit before Mr. Wolfe comes in."

Sango smiled back and stood up, going to the other side of Shippo and sitting down. Sure enough, Mr. Wolfe walked in just moments later. For a moment he looked over at me with an expression of sheer disappointment. … Wait… disappointment? I cringed and closed my eyes, hoping he was disappointed in the fact that Inuyasha seemed to have decided to skip again. I sighed, realizing that he would miss the day of torture. I had really wanted to see how he would react, too…

Wait.

Wait…

Why did I want Inuyasha here so bad, anyway?

We weren't friends. We weren't really even acquaintances. We just happened to be stuck together on a science project together. The closest relation he had to me was future brother-in-law… and you were allowed to hate your spouse's family. He was a selfish pig, who only cared about his reputation after having his ego stroked for to long. Maybe he started out innocently like Miroku said, but now? Now he probably honestly thought he was the greatest, only because he's half-demon.

Somehow though, I wasn't sure I entirely believed that anymore…

I screwed my eyes shut even harder. Why was I thinking this? I just got the boyfriend of my dreams. He was protective, kind, and, well, interesting…not to mention amazingly hot.

I had Sesshomaru. I had Sesshomaru Hidaka, _finally_. So why did I find myself thinking about his idiot brother, other than to think about him as "my boyfriend's idiot brother"?

I sighed and leaned back in my seat. _Just block it out. Block everything out and pay attention to the lesson… even though it's almost as painful._

I really hate math.

---

"Kagome."

"Mmf."

"Ka-go-me. Class is over."

"And we're on to a new class. Kill me?"

"Not a new class, lunch. You get to see Sesshomaru now," Evana coaxed, poking me between the shoulder blades.

I bolted upright. "That's right! The only thing that makes this day worth it…"

Evana smiled. "Let's go, Kagome. Or do you want to be alone with him today? Or just with Sango?"

I shook my head furiously. "No way. Besides, why just with Sango?"

"Well," Evana began hesitantly, as though maybe she had said something wrong (which she might have), "She's your best friend, isn't she?"

I had never really thought of that. Sure, I had "good friends", my group of friends consisting of Sango, Shippo, Kikyou, Evana, and Sophie. But… weren't my best friends the ones I had left behind?

I had talked to them less and less frequently, and each time we talked we had less and less to say. I figured that when they came here, however, all would be right again. By the time they left we'd have dozens more inside jokes to laugh about over the phone and over IM. It'd be normal again… right? It'd get better in time.

I pushed the thoughts away and ignored her question. "I want you all there, even Miroku." (Miroku seemed to like sitting with us by this point, and said he was going to bring Inuyasha along with him after the punishment period was over.) I grabbed her arm almost desperately. "Come with me to the line?"

Evana smiled reassuringly. "Sure." I got up and slung my backpack over my shoulder, feeling just as nervous as I had in the morning. God, why was it so controversial for someone like me to date a demon, just because I hadn't really shown too much of an interest in demons before?

_Society really sucks sometimes,_ I thought bitterly. I pushed open the heavy doors and walked outside towards the food stand with Evana at my side. I put a bowl of lukewarm ramen on my tray and took the smallest carton of milk they offered. I was sick of these expensive prices, especially today. I paid for my food, waiting for Evana, and then sat down at my table. To my great surprise, the first demon to sit down at the table wasn't Shippo or Sesshomaru… it was Inuyasha. Miroku smiled cheerfully in greeting. "Punishment's up."

"Is it now?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. While Miroku was being punished, he wasn't allowed to bring any friends. Sango didn't dare tell the teachers why she slapped Miroku so often (a/n: Now that I think about it, that'd be pretty bad XD;; Siiigh, but she doesn't go reporting it in Inuyasha so she won't report it here either), but the teacher figured he must be provoking her in some way, so the history teacher therefore refused to Miroku bring any friends.

"Yeah. It ended early because Sango and I get along so well now," he said with a broad grin, glancing over at Sango who was sitting to my right. She turned bright red.

"We're not going steady, we're simply dating. I told you that," she said dangerously, taking a sip of her green tea as though not bothered in the least, though her body language and tone betrayed her.

"How cute!" Evana, Sophie, and I all squealed together. Kikyou said nothing, and Shippo grinned at Sango as he walked up. "Finally, you two," he said brightly. Sango buried her face into her backpack.

Sesshomaru was the last person to come over. He sat next to me and gave a very small smile. I returned the smile and began eating.

Having Sesshomaru there… well, it didn't really affect the lunch table. He'd nod at our stories and roll his eyes at his brother's antics. I was too busy paying attention to Sesshomaru to pay too much attention to the other new arrival to the table. Sesshomaru wasn't really affectionate, or anything else. I didn't even feel reassured having him there. I couldn't help but feel disappointed, but maybe it'd get better in time. I blocked out most of these thoughts and tried to enjoy being with my friends and new boyfriend, but…

Did everything really just get better in time?

A/N: Yeah, I know, it wasn't great. Don't eat me. D: I updated, though! I TOLD you I'm not dead!! Oh, and to those of you who hated the Sess/Kag fluff. Here you go. xD


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